Since September 11th, 2001, over a million people have died as a result of the War on Terror:
- 70,000 military personnel on both sides have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
- Over 1,000,000 civilians have died in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
- Hundreds more military fighters have been killed in Israel, Palestine, North Africa, and Asia
- Thousands of civilians have been killed on those same fronts
Now, the Bush Administration says it plans to kill six more.
After we kill them, can we call the war on terror over?
More after the jump....
Six Guantánamo detainees who are accused of central roles in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be shown all the evidence against them and will be afforded the same rights as American soldiers accused of crimes, the Pentagon said Monday as it announced the charges against them.
Military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the six Guantánamo detainees on charges including conspiracy and murder “in violation of the law of war,” attacking civilians and civilian targets, terrorism and support of terrorism, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann of the Air Force, legal adviser to the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions, said at a Pentagon news briefing.
I'm not sure how killing these six men will solve much. It seems like an act of collective revenge more than some kind of deterrent. What's more, they are being charged in a court system so flimsy it fails to pass even the basic tests of due process - it doesn't guarantee the right of habeas corpus and it allows evidence obtained by torture. What's more, if these six men are killed in the military commissions system, it makes me fear for my rights as an American. It seems like it's only a matter of time before we are trying common citizens in these courts. In fact, we already have.
On top of that, some feel the system can't even handle cases of this magnitude or complexity:
“The system hasn’t been able to handle the less-complicated cases it has been presented with to date,” said David Glazier, a former Navy officer who is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
However, as George Bush is preparing to kill these six in my name, "for my freedom," I have one small request. After we mete out "justice" on these six men and kill them in a fit of nationalistic revenge, can we call the War on Terror over? Can we finally say we've brought those responsible for 9/11 to justice? Can we stop collectively punishing the entire Middle East and call the debt settled?
Over a million people have died so far in the War on Terror, and most of them weren't American. 2,700 died on September 11th. If you're into doing crude moral calculus, there is no way the punishment has fit the crime.
When can we call this over?
(originally posted at The Seminal)