They Write Letters

Sometime in the past, I sent an e-mail through one website or another, to my representatives in Congress.

Today I got a reply:

Dear Mr. R------- J--------:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opinion on the detention ofterrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

As of July 2005, 520 terrorists captured from around the world were being detained as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. These detainees wore civilian clothing, did not serve in an organized army, and engaged in hostile terrorist acts against U.S. forces. Because of this, they are not "prisoners of war" and are not covered by the Geneva Convention.

I strongly support housing and trying these terrorists at our military base at Guantanamo Bay. These inmates present a special security problem. As members of a terrorist cell, they could attract a terrorist attack attempting to free or martyr them that kills more innocent Americans. The secure and classified information that will come up in their trials needs to be kept secret. I applaud the administration's decision to keep the proceedings closed and outside of the United States. I hope that these hearings will proceed quickly and that justice will be given to those involved with AI-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Thank you for entrusting me to represent you in the United States Congress. Please visit my new website at www.culberson.house.gov.


Sincerely,

John Culberson Member of Congress

This is a nice, clean, simple argument for setting aside all of the judicial system, 1000+ years of law and tradition, and treating due process, as if it doesn't exist.

As I re-read it, what I read is: "FearFearFearFear." Paragraph. "FearFearFear." Paragraph. "Trust us. Thank you."

What prompts me to post it is a conversation I got into at Eschaton tonight; with Atrios, of all people. This is not personal at all. Atrios was kind enough to offer me his blog about this time last year, and that lead me to starting this one. But this was part of his argument for the death penalty, at least in "certain" cases:

rmj,
I'm not supporting killing the "worst of the worst" I just mean if there were very few death penalty cases and they were all clearly monsters then some - not all - of the anti-death penalty arguments would be rendered moot.
Atrios

Some, yes. I see we agree more than disagree. But his comment nicely underlines my response to this letter. We will always have people like John Culberson in the government.

"[Christ] is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst."