Oh, for crying out loud

[pecunium]

The Gov't says that releasing 17 prisoners (dissidents, from China) might pose a threat to the US.

Why?

In arguing that there would be danger if the 17 detainees were to be released into the U.S., the Department said “virtually all” 17 had testified at Pentagon hearings or told government interviewers that they had gone to Afghanistan “to seek weapons training to fight the Chinese Government.” Their training included the use of assault weapons, it added.
Yep, you read that right, 17 people who know how to aim a rifle pose so grave a threat to the 300 million people who live in the US they have to be detained indefinitely. SCOTUS Blog

I'm so glad they thought of that before they started letting people who have histories of violent crimes, and even gang members, join the US Army; where they could get training in the effective use of "assault weapons" and maybe even time in a combat zone to practice in real world conditions.

I'm glad they are being so diligent in looking out for us. Those 17 hate China so much they might to something really drastic.

Comments

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

The Army's recruitment "standards" (and I use that word ever so loosely) scare the HELL out of me. I watched the bar drop lower and lower and lower the three years I was at MEPS, til by the time I got out the only people getting denied were basically the ones so physically infirm that Doc swore they'd drop dead during boot camp. The criminal background checks in response to submission of the SF-86 came through the files room and we distributed them to the services, so I got to see PLENTY of what was getting in that quite frankly shouldn't have been.

Between that and the culture of treating personnel as disposable, the regular Army just scares the crap out of me. The Guard was much better, from my experience, and actually turned criminals away.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

We have to be... the people we take in stay in town.

And yes, the Standards/Treatments of the RA (esp. for the line units) piss me off something fierce.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Why are we worried because they want to fight the Chinese?? Oh, that's right, the Chinese are our allies now, despite being a terrible dictatorship, having no sense of individual rights, and serious rumors of organlegging - executing prisoners to use for transplants. But we owe them lots of money, so we have to do their dirty work.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's got nothing to do with the Chinese. It's about the courts saying the Bush Administration has to release people who aren't guilty of breaking US laws.

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

I believe magentamn was trying to be sarcastic with her opening question...

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest that it's about The Bush Administration being told they have to something they don't want to do, or can't do something they want to do. It is not consistent with the Great American Principle that the President/Administration has Absolute Authoritarian Power -- starting with, but perhaps not limited to, anything having to do what the President terms "war" or "national security". (It seems to be pretty much a Republican concept, and appears to be largely shared by Mr. McCain & Mrs. Paulin.)

I must confess to being inattentive -- I was not aware, until recently, that anyone could seriously hold that this concept has anything American about it, but quite a lot of our people appear to accept it.