Editorial: On Guantanamo, Carter, Falluja, Fonda and the "moderates"

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Saturday the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States.
Mr. Carter also criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq as "unnecessary and unjust."
"I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.," he told a news conference at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary conference in Birmingham, England. "I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts."

The above is from the Associated Press' "Ex-president goes on the attack" (The Globe and Mail) and we couldn't agree with Carter more. We're glad he said it. It needed saying. He'll be attacked for it, but it needed saying.

Here's something else that needs saying -- Jess' parents sent us a Mother Jones article by David Enders' entitled "We Regard Falluja As a Large Prison" and we're just wondering if we'll have to wait three or so years before Falluja can get some serious attention. From the article:

Eight months after the second invasion of Falluja, there is hardly a street that does not still feature a building pulverized during the assault. I had not been in the city since last July, when I was escorted out by three cars of mujahedeen — that's when things were still relatively nice — and though I had expected it, the destruction was still shocking.
[. . .]
I have heard Iraqis make comparisons between their occupation and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but it wasn't until I saw families walking through the kilometer-long checkpoint, from a parking lot outside Falluja to one on the other side, that it seemed apt. Once inside, seeing the life continuing amidst the rubble, it was harder still to ignore the physical similarities.

This is the city that we've invaded twice now. (The first time Dexter Filkins turned the deadly and destructive invasion into a "Way Cool, Dude!" video game.)

Is there any chance that we'll get a serious examiniation of Falluja? At any point in the near future? Or will we just continue to act as though what has gone down there hasn't happened.


Jane Fonda's about to begin a speaking tour. We need it. As a nation we need it. And to the "moderates" who have started the trash talk on her, how about you see if you have the courage to address the issue of Falluja? And address it in something beyond the bromides of "Things happen in war time."

Instead of predicting sure failure for the Democrats in 2006 because Jane Fonda's speaking out, why don't you do some speaking out too? If you really think she, or Carter, isn't up to addressing the topics, why don't you lend your voices to them?

Of course that would mean dropping the war postures you've adopted. And maybe that's what goes to the core of your trashing of Fonda? You've adopted postures and any reality could shatter your pose.

The news will shatter that pose. With Bully Boy pulling a page from Nixon because Americans have grown weary of Operation Happy Talk, it's time for truth.

And as Elaine rightly pointed out, truth isn't "jokes" that Ted Kennedy will be Fonda's bus driver. We got to hand it to you "moderates," you "rescued" that lame joke. Maybe now you can get to work on rescuing the truth? But if that's too hard, you just continue trashing the people who will speak out and making yourself less and less revelant not only to the Democratic Party but to the issues we are facing today.