by Eric P. Metze

Created on: May 29, 2009   Last Updated: May 31, 2009

There has been a lot of "debate," over what to do with all of the human beings and monsters locked away in Guantanamo Bay. There are apparently only two sides to this discussion: free them all and send them letters of apology or kill them all and let God sort them out. I'm obviously oversimplifying things, but you wouldn't know it if you watched the 24-hour news channels. Like so many public discussions, the truth is often obscured by the rhetoric.

For every terror suspect we convict fairly, there are hundreds we detain unfairly. For every innocent person we keep incarcerated, we create dozens of potential enemies. And for every person (regardless of innocence or guilt), we treat unfairly or inhumanely, we create untold numbers of people who no longer see America as the shining beacon of freedom we so desperately claim to be. What other reasons do terrorists need to demonize us if we actively and regularly give them reasons? How can we dispute their claim that we are the Great Evil, when our actions are so greatly evil?

Aside from keeping the worst of the worst locked safely away, the only thing that can change the anti-American sentiment that has been broiling over the past decade, is a fresh and decent approach to our fellow citizens of the world. I do not include terrorists in this group, however. A terrorist loses their worldwide citizenship once they conspire to commit crimes against their fellow humans. But how, exactly, is that different than when we commit crimes against our fellow humans? An innocent person locked away in a dank cell, is a crime of the highest order and every person in the society that supports it, shares the blame for it.

It used to be that the ends justified the means. Airplanes were used to murder 3,000 Americans? Let's tighten airport security to the point where even children and the elderly are searched and detained. The Viet Cong are hiding amongst women and children in the jungle? Let's firebomb the whole place to ensure we kill enough of the enemy. Japan attacks a military installation in the United States? Let's put all people of Japanese descent into concentration camps. The South wants to secede from the union? Let's go to war with them and kill hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans. The native Americans won't move out of the land we want? Let's force them off or just slaughter them outright.

Throughout American history, we have justified our atrocities in the name of our ideals. But even when those ideals are

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