Well, we have further evidence of mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, many of whom have not been charged with any crime of any kind. Of course, these are former detainees, so it would make sense that they wouldn’t have been charged with anything. Still, this is yet more disturbing news and yet another reason why the Court’s ruling last week is so important for our country. Guantanamo really was a legal black hole, and one is forced to conclude that it’s something of an ethical black hole as well. If there is some higher standard of conduct that applies to behavior within those walls, I’m just not sure what it is.
That said, I wasn’t surprised to see this story. It didn’t really even bother me very much. It was mostly just another reminder that our nation no longer leads anything, much less the free world. We, like all other nations, have always had moral failings of one kind or another: between domestic racism, our distinct willingness to intervene in democratic elections, and a cool attitude toward our international commitments, we’ve never been angels. But, it seems that we’ve at least aspired to better in the past. It seems that there was once a time where we at least wanted to be the greatest nation in the world, in every sense of the word.
Now, it seems that we want to be the strongest nation in the world, but not at the expense of being the richest nation in the world. And most righteous nation? Well, we accomplish that every time we condemn gay marriage, right?
Maybe hating gay people shouldn’t be good enough anymore.
