Murderous morality

I try not to think about the Bush administration too often. It stirs dark thoughts within me of creating a super-bomb and razing Washington, annihilating the political establishment in one joyous flash of instant sunshine. No good will come of it. The thoughts that is.

But Colleen Graffy’s comments on the suicide of three men imprisoned in the USA’s concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay are heartless even for that barbarous regime.

Guantanamo suicides a 'PR move'

A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention".
Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary.

But lawyers say the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.

A military investigation into the deaths is under way, amid growing calls for the centre to be moved or closed.

Suicide as a PR ‘stunt’. The callousness of that comment chills my blood. Suicide is not a ‘stunt’ whoever or why ever it is done. Making a speech on a warship in front of a big banner saying “Mission Accomplished” – that’s a stunt; Saddam Hussein’s show trial – that’s a stunt.

The decision to commit suicide is never one that is taken lightly. It is a decision born of despair and hopelessness, of seeing no future, no point in your continued existence. Is it possible that their despair was bought on after spending nearly 5 years in a concentration camp without charge, without legal status and without any recourse to justice? Trying to deflect criticism of Guantanamo by describing the suicides as PR or acts of war illustrates perfectly the true value that Bush’s ‘christian’ White House places on a human life. We’ve seen his administration kill indiscriminately from Fallujah to New Orleans. Life is cheap to a neo-con. I only hope the karma police have something suitable lined up for George.