Guantanamo

"When in the course of human events a state sets itself above the law ...a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires," that good men act. .


Haunted by the words of its own Declaration of Independence, the United States proceeds on a shameful course of action. As the twenteth century has drawn to a close and the twenty first begun, freed from the constraints of Cold War detente, the United States stands as an unrivaled super power. Increasingly, its actions have contravened the very

Guantanamo POW Campfinest moral and ethical canons of human experience. International law, the Geneva Conventions and the spirit (at least) of the United Nations are among the highest expressions of 5,000 years of civilization. If not perfect they still remain among the noblest achievements of mankind, grander than the pyramids, the great wall of China, symphonic music, the harnessing of the atom or the unravelling of the genetic code. While self evident, it is because of the difficulty of achievement that the democratic rule of law with its inherent wisdom represents the very essence of civilization and the epitome of human spiritual development. Yet in the face of a limited threat, the United States and its unwittiing followers have scurriously turned their backs on the rule of law and international human rights.
The lessons of Nuhrmeburg have been forgotten: The violation of the Geneva Conventions over prisoners of war denied numerous basic rights at the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp. The unecessary massacre of several hundred Taliban prisoners in the Qala-e-Jhangi fort, near the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Only 82 emerged from a basement after American's opted for bombing to quell the uprising. The morality of a super-power conducting warfare against comparatively unarmed opponents as we have witnessed not only in Afghanistan but also Iraq and Yugoslavia, while incuring negligible (virtually zero) casualties while slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians --"collateral damage" in American terms. These developments point to a the demise of American values.