Political Palooka: Obama Gags On Gitmo Question

The Post Chronicle ^ | 7/3/2008 | Daniel Clark

[RepublicNewbie]

The handling of Barack Obama calls to mind a movie called The Harder They Fall, in which Humphrey Bogart played a boxing promoter whose client was a heavyweight named Toro Moreno. Bogey learned early on that Toro couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag, but that didn't stop him from guiding the palooka to a shot at the world title.

[RepublicNewbie]

This is a terrific article, not too long and well-written, that describes how his comparison of the status and handling of Gitmo terrorists with the defendants at Nuremberg demonstrates Obama's naivete and/or lack of knowledge of history and the law.

[Roses0508]

WOW wet paper bag. I love it.

[pepsionice]

The Nuremberg comparison barely works in this case. Nuremberg was completely open....with no classified data ever injected in any single case that I know of. The Nuremberg court...was held in the place where the residents were from and where the crimes were committed...something that won’t dare happen in the Gitmo situation. From the vast number of Nuremberg players....almost all had some type of punishment....from a couple of years in prison....to a sentence of death....but from the vast audience we hold at Gitmo, I doubt that we can find realistic charges for more than five percent of the occupants we currently house.

I don’t want to sound negative about this whole thing....but the initial plan, the years & years of “gathering intelligence & interrogation”, and lack of use of the Nuremberg “rules”...make this all a pretty woeful episode for the administration. It would have been very simplistic and easy to get public support....if we simply pulled out the Numemberg gamebook and played the episode by those rules....but then you would have had to declare the boys as prisoners of war....and in the case of the Bush administration...this just ain’t gonna happen.

In my humble opinion....whatever direction Obama takes...doesn’t really matter. I think its an unfixable situation, and we are now stuck with it.

[gusopol3]

but the mere fact he said it not only makes it brilliant, it has the force of settled history, no other viewpoints necessary

[syriacus]

The Nuremberg trials were not held while WWII was raging.

[TomGuy]

McCain also suffers from foot-in-mouth regarding GITMO.

McCain to Close Club Gitmo "The first day I am President"
	Posted by advance_copy On 02/21/2007 7:33:23 PM CST · 85 replies · 1,092+ views YouTube.com ^ | 2/21/07 | Video Over the weekend, John McCain said in Iowa, "One of the things I would do, the first day I am President of the United States, is close Guantanamo Bay. I would close it and I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. It's become a symbol, which is very bad for America."

In his own words on Youtube video: McCain to Close Gitmo

[YellowRoseofTx]

I think its an unfixable situation, and we are now stuck with it.

We are stuck with it, but it is not "unfixable". We simply either don't take prisoners, or the few we do take, we send to another country for interrogation.

[seanrobins]

For all the reasons that the Neuremberg comparison fails — and there are dozens — the main failure is this: At the time of Nuremberg, THE WAR WAS OVER!!!

You simply cannot hold “trials” of war criminals while the war is underway. The fact that this war is different, that it may never end, that even if it does end the end may be difficult to define: Is the problem of the enemy, not our problem. These scuzball chose the parts that they play, and they must accept the consequences. The consequences should include uncertainty as to how long they will remain locked up before file “adjudication,” and whether they will ever be afforded adjudication.

The problems that fighting terrorists creates that don’t exist in conventional warfare require that we do whatever we need to in order to win, and to keep ourselves safe. The notion furthered by the unAmerican left, and idiot judges and justices that any rights should enure to terrorists, especially outside our borders, in sheer insanity, and must be rejected at all costs.

Nuremberg? Forget about it.

[seanrobins]

>>>McCain also suffers from foot-in-mouth regarding GITMO.

>>>McCain to Close Club Gitmo “The first day I am President”

Once we defeat Obama, and that other character (er, McCain?) ascends the office . . . the next battle begins. For if we are lecky enough that BHO is defeated, we will have to spend every waking moment of the next 4 or 8 years battling McCain on every stupid idea he gets (like Gitmo, and interrogations, and “torture” and so on) just like the battle (to be repeated endlessly, it appears) over shamnesty for illegal aliens.

God help us... And that’s the BEST we can hope for!!!

[beebuster2000]

the movie they mention is really good. i saw it last year on cable and its worth watching.

[missnry]

Obama likened the prospect of terrorists in American courtrooms to the Nuremberg trials, lecturing that we even gave the Nazis their "day in court." ...

I know that the MSM will totally ignore this gaffe. Obama's handlers are letting him talk freely again. Every time he does he displays his ignorance! Obama comparing an ongoing war with militant Islam to a fully surrendered Nazi Germany is unbelievable.

[tlb]

>>>the movie they mention is really good. i saw it last year on cable and its worth watching.

It was also Bogart’s final movie. He died weeks after the movie wrapped. His character is seen as a used up, tired man. The cancer was his make-up for the role.

A very intelligent film, still relavent to the sport even today.

The article’s author makes an excellent point comparing the Obama campaign to the hapless stooge prizefighter.