Banging That Same Drum

Street Justice for You and Me - Spencer Ackerman

It seems like every few months or so we get another reminder of the Kafka-like experience of Gitmo. But it's worth reminding people that such an institution still exists, along with the mindset that created it in the first place. Ackerman sums up the problem of Guantanamo Bay and why it still matters:
You would have to be a fool to give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt. And you
shouldn’t have to. That’s the point of a justice system — to establish guilt and to vindicate
innocence. Instead we have Guantanamo justice, under which the basic facts of not a single
dispute can be demonstrated compellingly."
It's the issue of innocent until proved guilty that makes Gitmo such a blight on our world image. We have a judicial system, as imperfect as it is, that is intended to deal with these kinds of matters but the Bush administration refuses to use it for those detained at Guantanamo. If, instead, we put these detainees through the judicial system and see how it all shakes out then we can regain some of our moral standing in the world's eyes. And when you are fighting an enemy that can run to any country in the world you need that kind of moral standing to negotiate, pressure and even run military operations in nations that harbor terror suspects.
So until places like Guantanamo are closed and the attitude of indefintely holding suspects without charges is ended, it is worth it to sound like a broken record on the issue. The nation needs that constant reminder or else it disappears from the front pages and even from the news entirely.

Good Ideas Caught Smoking in the Bathroom with Bad Ideas

Uh, Oh: U.S. Special Forces May Head to Pakistan - Noah Shachtman @ The Danger Room

Now, we've heard Sen. Obama's desire to send American forces into Pakistan if he had 'actionable intelligence' that pointed to Osama Bin Laden being in Pakistan. And we've heard how this would end up as another boondoggle for U.S. forces as without permission by the Pakistani government we might inadvertantly topple the government. Now we have some reporting here by the fellows and friends of the Danger Room saying that U.S. forces are being assembled for possible incursions into western Pakistan where many Taliban and Al Qaeda are said to have gain a foothold for attacks into Afghanistan against NATO forces. This area of Pakistan is a traditionally tribal one and one prone to supporting the radical actions of the jihadists in the area. From what these two new Danger Room bloggers are saying, such incursions are too little, too late and would do more harm than good in stablizing Pakistan (which I think it bears reminding, holds nuclear-armed missles, among other things).
Generalized chaos in a certain region is typically good for the assaulting forces as it gives them time to act before their opposing forces can reassemble, but in areas like western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, this kind of tactic doesn't often work as local knowledge gives the defending forces a distinct advantage. Moreover, this generalized chaos would not remain contained in the region. Military action in this region often reverberates through the country in the form of politics and since we are trying to maintain a stable political situation, particularly at this time in Pakistan's history (re: Bhutto's assassination), it doesn't make any kind of sense to send in U.S. forces.