Just Let Them Die -- Guantanamo Bay

Imagine that you were taken prisoner by a foreign government.  Perhaps you are visiting the Middle East and get caught up in a riot and are swept into custody with the mob you find yourself surrounded by.  You are moved to a prison far from the scene of the supposed crime without being charged of doing any wrong.  You are kept in a small cell for ten years.  You lose hope of ever seeing your family again.  You have children growing up that will never know their dad.  At some point, you give up hope and stop eating, a hunger strike.  But, you are not allowed to die, you are punished for trying to die, they tie you to a bed and ram over sized feeding tubes up your nose, but neither do they give you any hope.  They take all possessions away as further punishment, even your tooth brush and all reading materials.  You have a mattress and bed.  And periodically you are dragged to chair especially designed by the military for force feeding  upon which you are tied and then force fed with oversized size 10 tubes.

Of course, that is very similar to what WE have done to 160 people at Guantanamo Bay.  We do not even try to make their life better, or negotiate with them, or in any way treat them as humans.  

I am sure some are as guilty as hell of whatever you want to imagine, but I also suspect that some of them as guiltless as you as a reader ... and as innocent as the scene imagined above, i.e., being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

WE as AMERICANS are doing this.  Is this justice?  Justice for what?  Can our fears justify such actions against fellow humans.  What could they believe or think that could justify such treatment.  And obviously, we don't of anything WRONG THEY HAVE DONE or we would have charges against them.  So, we think they might of been guilty of something.  We even have three children we are abusing.  If we as Americans allow our country to do such things, are we good people?  Are we proud of belonging to such a country?

The entire world is lining up on the side of the PRISONERS not us.  Every international organizations including the UN are saying forced feeding is not humane.  Every person should have the right to deny medical treatment --- the concept behind a living will.   We as Americans simply do not care what happens to them as we have proven for ten years.  The humane thing to do is to let these people die. But, can we even be humane.