Progressive Nation

June 8th, 2005

Greetings

Hello Princeton Progressives, I’m Jordan Kline from Seattle, WA. Asheesh, my co-worker (or co-free summer laborer – take your pick) at The American Prospect has kindly handed me a set of extra keys to this blog as a place for me to spread my vile, pro-death, pro-Saddam propaganda for the summer. I go to Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, so I don’t attend Princeton, nor have I ever spent more than two minutes anywhere near Princeton, but I am a progressive – an unabashed one, so at least I possess half of this blog’s title. Anyway, a hearty thanks to Asheesh and the rest of the group for hosting me, and here goes!

I see Jimmy Carter has joined Sen. Joe Biden in demanding that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay be permanently closed. These are exciting developments, considering Democrats should have been calling for its closure long before now.

Republicans look at these potential human rights abuses through a utilitarian perspective. They’re perfectly fine with human rights abuses as long as the good that arises from said abuse outweighs the negatives. They use the tired “ticking time bomb” story in which a terrorist knows the location of the nuclear device, therefore torture would be justified in order to save the lives of millions. I’m not going to dissect the moral failings of such a view, because I think they’re plainly obvious, but that’s the situation. They believe that while Guantanamo may slightly violate the detainees’ human rights, it is justified because we’re protecting America. Now, faced with mountains of evidence that says these human rights abuses are not only angering the whole of the Muslim world, but also aren’t yielding any actionable or reliable intelligence, it seems as if the utilitarian calculus doesn’t add up. Even if you don’t take issue with Guantanamo prima facie, it doesn’t make sense to still believe that the detention center is still doing positive things for America’s security, let alone America’s image in the world.

Unfortunately, judging by the outcry following Amnesty International’s use of the word “gulag” to describe Guantanamo, the Republican wagons have already been circled, and rather than cede a victory to The Left™, they’re keeping Guantanamo right where it is - outside the boundaries of law.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 at 10:02 am and is filed under Introductory Post, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.