Guantanamo prisoners' defense attorneys

Yesterday on NPR they interviewed 2 attorneys who are working for the defense of prisoners at Guantanamo.

I have no quibble with their doing what they are doing. It is the job of defense attorneys to defend people. The problem is that the majority of people they defend are guilty. They know it and we know it.

The attorneys know their clients are guilty and still use every means available to get their clients off. Including obfuscation and out right lying. This is not justice and it is not good for society in general.

One of the Guantanamo defense attorneys made a statement which few liberals will take the time to dissect. He said, "One of my clients is a Saudi police officer who took a 2 month leave of absence to go to the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan to do humanitarian work. He left his family to do so."

Now, seriously, does anyone with half a brain believe that a Saudi police officer was in the Taliban controlled areas to do humanitarian work?

Obviously, he went to defend his Saudi Muslim imperialist, fundamentalist brothers, and their Afghan converts, against the US invasion. The same is true of the young British Muslims who are the subject of Michael Winterbottom's film, "The Road to Guantanamo."

These men went to fight the US but they were not successful. They were taken as prisoners of war and must await the cessation of hostilities to be released

The problem for the US is this, these men are enemies of the US. We have chosen to engage in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and letting sworn enemies loose to fight us is suicidal and self defeating. It will make the wars drag on even longer.

If you are going to start a war, you want of course to win it in the shortest time possible. Letting prisoners of war loose on your own soldiers is not the way to win a war. This is not catch and release fishing.