Wanted: A home for Gitmo detainees. No takers?

The Australian ^ | 31st May 2009 | Janet Albrechtsen

[naturalman1975]

REPORTS that Kevin Rudd is considering a request from US President Barack Obama to resettle in Australia 17 Muslim Uighurs from China held in Guantanamo Bay raises some interesting questions all round.

Whenever John Howard agreed to a request made by George W Bush, the Left went apoplectic, complaining that the then Australian Prime Minister was behaving like a lap dog for the then US President. Remember the cartoons? Remember the protestors depicting Howard as a dog with its nose up the backside of Bush? Recall the accusations of Howard, the deputy sheriff, diminishing Australia’s national interest?

It was cheap symbolism that never even pretended to understand the importance of alliances or the nature of real-politik. To the chagrin of those who prefer to taint everything that Bush did as wrong, Howard understood the importance of the US alliance and no doubt some of his decisions, though unpopular, were taken to secure a longer term pragmatic path that reinforces Australia’s alliance with the US. Had Howard taken detainees from Guantanamo after a request from Bush, we would have heard plenty about Howard, once again, playing deputy sheriff to Bush.

But if Rudd agrees to Obama’s request and takes some of the Guantanamo detainees who have been found not to be enemy combatants, will we hear the same shrill cries from the Left about Rudd, the lackey of the US President?

Probably not. Hypocrisy is the order of the day. Indeed, the contortions and twisted logic on show about Guantanamo Bay generally should be subjected to some kind of blow-into-the bag hypocrisy measure where we calculate inconsistency on a scale of one to ten.

[I Hate Obama]

Only if I can waterboard and torture them.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Send four or five to Pelosi’s house and then one to each person in Congress. First group goes to the White House, of course.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Who wants these cockroackes?

[Harley]

The perfect place is Area 51 in the Nevada desert. It is probably the most secure location in the country. A new lockup facility could be constructed off site and placed anywhere. Area 51 employees are flown in from McCarren airport. Once the unmarked aircraft lands at Area 51, Everyone would be placed on buses with black-out windows and transported to the secluded lockup area. Dealing with Red Cross, human rights organization, and other visitors would be a lot easier than operations at a super max prison in Colorado. The best part though is that Muslim extremest couldn’t case the area and set up operations because they couldn’t get near the lockup. No suicide car bombers trying to ram the front door. The more I think about this the more it makes sense. Remote security, anonymity of guards and workers, and limited exposure to snoopy news media.