Is the USA turning into a terrorist nation?

Question

U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000 By PATRICK QUINN, AP news.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.


Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, From the American people. We are worse than the Insurgents.
"It was hard to believe I'd get out," Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release — without charge — last month. "I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell."

Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, the USA has turned into a terrorist nation.

Answer 1

One cannot "turn into" what one already is. Since 20 January 2001, the USA has been a rogue terrorist State.

Answer 2

You seem to be having difficulty with the definition of "terrorist". Or have you so readily forgotten, conveniently forgot, the video of a man tied to a chair and someone cuts his throat? Who protected his rights? Uniformed people captured on battlefields are Prisoners of War by the Geneva Convention. People participating in military activities not in uniform could be shot as spies, same convention. POWs can be held as long as a conflict is in progress. The Geneva Convention is the established law for ligitimate POWs. The groups that flew the planes into WTC weren't members of a uniformed military, were they?

Answer 3

Our leaders, when they stoop to the level or below those who have attacked us, are no better than our attackers. To send direct orders to guards of these prisons to use torture to get information is the lowest form of terrorism. Especially when you send those guards (who had direct orders) to trial and force them to be the fall guy for the top leaders in our nation.
Prisoners, should be protected by international law. The USA has been held to the highest of standards when dealing with criminals, those days are gone.
Be fearful. What has happened in Guantanamo, and other secret locations, if ignored, will reach our own shores. Either by those around the world that hate us, or by our own government, who seeks to destroy everything we have ever believed in. They are sneaky about this. They do it very gradually, so most don't take notice, one thing at a time. These guys are very dangerous. Beware.

Answer 4

Well, secret prisons for torture isn't exactly home and Mom's apple pie. What Little respect the rest of our allies had for us is going down the tubes. Our President is a megalomaniac who is pushing his luck by ignoring International Law. And from the way they are trying to circumvent the Constitution and Bill Of Rights, we may end up with him terrorizing us.

Answer 5

Bush and the Republicans have destroyed Iraq and they have no morals,, they want to continue mass destruction with weapons,,, US troops should be brought home,, I do not think that terrorists will follow them home as Bush says,,,,, their in a civil war,,, US is caught in the middle,,, Trenches are being built all around the city of Baghdad, so as to guard the exits and entrances.

Answer 6

I don't see how you can compare, this political rhetoric and a bit of harrassing of ,let me remind you "PRISONERS" because of terrorist crimes against the human race, to the same kind of activities our enemies are capable of. Of course, they haven't been giving the beheadings , kidnappings, and murders and rapes , commited against American, and International Soldiers, Journalists, contract hired Enginers, Carpenters, etc. People who provide aid to starving women and children, school teachers, etc. basically people that are there out of the goodness of their hearts to help a nation rebuild as much publicity anymore, to appease the enemy of course, dont want to hurt their feelings.

Answer 7

Does it make sense that these ex prisoners were taken prisoner just because they were unlucky or that they may have actually done something to justify being imprisoned? I wager that over 3/4s of the ones released will claim they are innocent of any wrong doing. Why would anyone take their word over the people that are fighting and dying for us. Our prisons are filled with INNOCENT people.

Answer 8

???????????ummmm no. We are at war. It is not supposed to be pleasant. Some of the behavior has been unacceptable and people have been punished for treating prisoners badly. I do not condone the torture of detainees. Sugar has a point.

Answer 9

George Bush is no better then Hitler or any other terrorists. They all have something in common: they are all ego maniacs who figure they have the right to dictate how people should lives their lives and figure that anyone who feels that they are wrong are the enemy. I'm glad I'm in Canada and I don't have to take responsibility for voting that ego maniac into power.(Not that my government is any better, I didn't vote in the loser we have)

Answer 10

No - just exploring the limits. It will turn around in the next few elections.