Obama Should Be Consistent
Published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(Germany) on 15 April 2009
by Reinhard Müller (link to
original)
It’s obviously not an easy task for President Obama to shake off the legacy he inherited from George W. Bush. His administration has filed suit against a judicial order stating that prisoners held at the Bagram military installation in Afghanistan are entitled to a review of their incarceration by the American court system. The Department of Justice fears that the ruling could compromise military operations. In the case of prisoners of war, the civilian court system wouldn’t have jurisdiction in any event.
But the prisoners held at Bagram weren’t captured in Afghanistan; they were just brought there for interrogation. They are, like the prisoners held at Guantanamo (which Obama intends to close), prisoners of the global and unlimited war on terror. The usual rules of war may be difficult to apply to this conflict, but that shouldn’t be used to justify the systematic violation of basic liberties. Obama needs to be consistent.
But the prisoners held at Bagram weren’t captured in Afghanistan; they were just brought there for interrogation. They are, like the prisoners held at Guantanamo (which Obama intends to close), prisoners of the global and unlimited war on terror. The usual rules of war may be difficult to apply to this conflict, but that shouldn’t be used to justify the systematic violation of basic liberties. Obama needs to be consistent.