It is a sad situation that these things must even be questioned.

Well human rights of course, everyone should be dignified with human rights.

I am not talking about the rights that we give our own convicted murderers. Color television, a workout gym that makes a public school's look like the warped basketball court it is, etc. etc.; no, I am talking about basic human rights.

Basic human rights, and call me merciless but I do not think that basic human rights includes the right to have a Bible in your cell. Much less a television set.

It is hard to assess the rights of Guantanamo Bay "detainees". Though that word alone, "detainees" should give us a clue.

These people are hardly "detainees", those Americans living in the U.S. (citizens no less) of Japanese descent during World War II were "detainees". These people at Guantanamo are jailed prisoners. More than that, they are "suspected insurgents" who have been convicted and jailed with no trial but for the word of the current Administration.

So how does on assess the rights of these "detainees". It will not be easy for you, but I will tell you how to do so. Become a parent of one of them. Pretend you are a parent and your son or daughter is in there. (However, it is no fair to just unlock that door and let them out. OK?)

That seems like it is almost impossible to do but you can do it. Of course, we all know that any child of ours is a perfect angel, or close enough.

So, think of one of the young people who go to visit a foreign country. This is your child. Your child gets off the airplane and, unknown to him/her, someone at the airport has slipped a pouch of Cocaine into your child's backpack so it will make it through customs. United States citizens not usually checked in foreign customs as closely as others are.

Nevertheless, your child is searched and the illegal drugs are found. Unlike the United States, in the country that has arrested your child, a person is guilty until found innocent. Your child cannot prove that someone else slipped the drugs into the backpack and receive the mandatory sentence of life in prison.

If this sounds far-fetched to you, do not let it because it does happen to U.S. citizens and they do not have a get out of jail card.

How would you access your child's rights under these circumstances?

When you figure that out, you have your answer to Guantanamo, where "detainees" are known to have been subjected to probably the worst water torture there is. Water-boarding is giving someone the true feeling that she/he is truly drowning. It is about the worse non-bone breaking or physically cutting/burning torture to which anyone can be subjected. If you have it done to you, it is guaranteed to follow you the rest of your life.

I am not making a case for these people to be freed or anything but, I believe we all know in our hearts that what is happening here just is not right.

These people have been imprisoned and tortured without any shred of a trial. Hitler does things like that, not the United States.

We need to take back control of this country and bring it back to where it should be.

Learn more about this author, Duane Kuehn.
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