Is it not self-evident that even prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have certain unalienable Rights?”
You’re quoting from the Declaration of Independence, which is a noble document but it doesn’t have any legal force. This is a wartime action, and in a war you deprive people of life, liberty, and happiness all the time. People are shot in sight for wearing the opposing uniform. If you capture them, you throw them in jail until the end of hostilities. The confusing factor here is that these people weren’t wearing uniforms. I really think you’d be a lot more sanguine about Guantanamo if you were really able to think of these people as prisoners of war. Captured in civilian clothes, they look like civilians, it puts civilians in jeopardy. And that’s the problem. In this war we can’t tell the difference between the people we’re fighting and the civilians. Wearing uniforms is mandated by the Geneva Convention for exactly that reason. There are probably innocent civilians there at Guantanamo, and there’s absolutely no good way to sort them out from the truly evil people. There are serious po
