Revolutionary War: British NY was first GITMO

ljm

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Tuesday July 04, 2006 · 10:45 AM PDT

2006/07/04 · 10:45

The New York Times had an excellent op-ed, which I blogged about at the Clark Community Network. http://www.securingamerica.com/...

(This takes you to my blog and link to the article.) It seems that more Patriots
died in British NY prisons than during battle. The conditions were beyond horrible. Many of these men were locked away on prison ships where they died. This is something we just don't learn about from our school history books. After the war, of course King George III was not held accountable for "war crimes" as he was the king of the British Empire. After this war, nations did start to establish rules on treatment of POWs and who counts as a POW. England called our Patriots, "insurgents" or "enemy combatants" not deserving of POW status. These are my words more or less.

Anyway, when you read the editorial, you understand that this was the first American GITMO or Abu Grahib. Nobody today should be able to say there is no context for what has happened in GITMO today. It was done to our own Patriots on our own soil and waters. In the course of this blog entry, read the comments section and you will see there is a need to rebuild a monument in NY for those who died in these prisons. They have interned some 11,500 Patriots bones and they need a proper resting place with 24 hour guard at Ft. Green. It seems like there should be no reason not to be able to raise the money they need to get this done. It's really shameful it hasn't been done before now. Before we spend money on anymore expensive fireworks displays, this simple thing needs to be completed first.

We also can't let up on humane treatment of prisoners of any sort anywhere. The SCOTUS was right in preserving Geneva as our law on these matters. COngress can't get away with changing these terms. All of these people died so we could do the right thing in how we treat people today. No more decision by kings or their cronies when it comes to how people are treated in our name.

(with poll)

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