Remember when that document was considered our greatest strength?

What have our prisoners at Guantanamo learned about American mores?

Do you ever wonder?

How about…If at first you don’t succeed….?

From Reuters, this initial report:

Three foreign prisoners being held at the U.S. navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, died on Saturday in apparent suicides, the U.S. military said.

“Two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards,” U.S. Southern Command said in a statement.

snip

The U.S. military said the bodies were being treated “with the utmost respect.” An investigation had begun, it said.

Well, that’s a mercy, and will be, I’m sure, a comfort to their families.

Even after it is closed, (clearly that is what the Bush administration is trying to find a way to do, but without having to admit the total folly of every aspect of Bush’s several unique doctrines), will Guantanamo ever cease to be a touchstone of outrage, anger, and certainty for the Arab and Muslim world that the Judeo-Christian civilization of the west is as much their enemy as it was in the days of the Crusades.

Was this black hole of a prison ever a good idea?

What on earth has Guantanamo brought to America besides disgrace abroad and a shaming destruction of what most of us, Republicans and Democrats, used to think this country stood for.

It strikes me as all too typical of Bush’s personal characteristics, at least so far in his public life, that he would be so insensible to his personal role in bringing immense suffering to persons he has no way of knowing have done anything to deserve even so much as incarceration. I know nothing of Bush as a friend, husband, father, nor do I need to. He may be a fine person in his private life, but is it even conceivable that the public persona that is George W. (I’m a war president)Bush has anything resembling a conscience?

All too typical of, too, of Rove et al, that they would keep this facility open, no matter the harm it is doing to this nation, because they can’t figure out how to close it, without releasing many of the prisoners there, whose stories will astonish and disgust the world, and, one hopes, most Americans, and ultimately rebound to the detriment of the Bush administration.

Party and self above nation, always, that is truly their motto.

I’ve been meaning to write about a conference held at Georgetown Law School a few months ago that provided a preview of the kind of stories that are bound to ooze forth from Guantanamo at some point; C-Span carried it and has it archived, so it can be seen on line.

Come back Monday and I’ll tell you all about it. Every American needs to watch and listen to these voices of those who have been actual prisoners, and that of the lawyers and law students who have been a lonely bulwark against this outlaw regime pretending to be an American government.