Iran, Iraq, Hostages: My confusion

A few days ago I turned on the radio to hear that a prisoner was being held by some authority or regime for no apparent reason and was allowed virtually no contact with a lawyer or with the outside world. "Another Guantanamo story.", I thought to myself. But then I heard them say two things. They used the pronoun "she" and said that she did get to make occasional phone calls but there were no more than one or two minutes allowed per call. Compared with Guantanamo this seemed enlightened.

I looked up the story later and it concerned an Iranian-born woman who is an American citizen and was arrested and held by the Iranians a few weeks ago. She is apparently a scholar and the Iranians should have no reason to hold her according to someone the reporter was quoting.

Next came the story of the British citizens, civilians, who are being held in Iraq. The reporter for this story said that Iraq could have no reason to arrest and hold these good people who had no military or other anti-Iraq role whatsoever.

Well folks, we and the Brits and the other nations complicit in extraordinary rendition lowered the bar. We can complain and accuse all that we want but we have no moral standing. That's one of the al Qaeda victories in the war on terror. We are told that al Qaeda hates our way of life at the same time that our way of life is undermined by those who blame it on al Qaeda.

It's true that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus early in the Civil War in a narrow band along the border states. He was facing a rebel army of 100,000 soldiers within the boom of a cannon from Washington D.C. A few years later Grant suspended habeas corpus in a narrow area in order to get the KKK under control in South Carolina. The Bushies have suspended habeas corpus for people from all walks of life from nations around the world. To this day, even when all evidence points to errors in their judgement the Bushies are too afraid of criticism (Bush is never really wrong.) to admit their errors.

Lincoln famously admitted mistakes, and did so to many people in many situations. He was a humble man, but more wise than all of our present leadership combined. If Lincoln were around today he'd be, without a doubt, the target of character assassination. A real person, a person of true intelligence, wisdom and character presents a threat to the powers that be beyond that of al Qaeda.

It's my belief that al Qaeda, and the pandering to and fanning of the nation's fears actually made Bush. Without al Qaeda Bush would have been a marginal, one-term president instead of hanging around to be, by far, the worst president in history.