Well, are we still winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim world when an article like this appears in a UK newspaper?
In a submission to the UN in May, the Pentagon said that no more than eight youths, aged 13 to 17 at time of capture, were held at Guantánamo Bay. But a prisoner list released in 2006 in response to US freedom of information act litigation names 21 inmates under 18 when they arrived. A separate defence department admission brings the total to 22. Testimonies collected by the charity Reprieve, which represents 30 inmates at Guantánamo, indicate the actual number is much higher.
The article is short, but asserts that there are still five prisoners who were children when caputered being held there. It ends with an account of at least one child who died in Gitmo, from a hunger strike.
I know that torture of children was discussed a great deal here last week, but this is an important topic that we should keep focused on. I have a 12 year old, for crying out loud, and she is so young, sweet, impressionable, immature, and vulnerable. I can't imagine a human being who would hurt such a child. (And in fact I would assert that many of our service members are being deeply damaged by the things they are forced to do.)
There are no words for the depravity of this. We have lost any moral high ground, and the support of the world, and with good reason. Bin Laden is winning, destroying America. We already know that these stories are a recruitment bonanza for him. And frankly, I can understand that. I would give my life to protect a child.
Last night I met a Korean War vet in a pizza parlor. We talked for a long time, and touched on the torture that he suffered in a POW camp during the war. He lost an eye, and was lucky to survive.
There was a time that I felt proud of America's history of treating POWs with dignity and respect. I am so ashamed now, so deeply ashamed, of the damage wrought on my country by small, small people.
History will not be kind to a regime that tortures children.