Stardate 20020131.0755

(On Screen): It is supremely ironic that in the wake of thorough condemnation of the US detention facility at Guantanamo by European punditry, a news report appears indicating that prisoners being held in Afghanistan are begging to be taken there.

Considering the conditions where they are, it's hardly surprising. Still, there is no praise more sincere than that spoken by your enemy. And when prisoners beg to be taken to your prisons, it puts a lie to the idea that your prisons are brutal and inhuman.

Still, the contrast couldn't be more stark. At Guantanamo, the prisoners are kept clean and are well clothed and well fed and not abused. Medical care is being provided. The weather is warm but not hot, and they have even been given a sign which indicates the direction to Mecca, so that they can pray in the proper direction.

At Shibergan prison, many are going barefoot even though it is terribly cold at night. The prisoners are wearing whatever clothes they had when they were captured; there is a shortage of food and water and there is no medicine at all. Many of the men have tuberculosis, and because they are being packed into cells, the disease will spread to others.

It's hardly any wonder that they want to be turned over to the US. For all the bitching in Europe, the United States has a very long and solid reputation for treating its prisoners exceptionally well.

The stark contrast is not merely the conditions in the two facilities, but also the disproportionate attention paid to the two by human rights organizations and by European politicians and editorial writers. Ignoring the horrible inhumanity of conditions in Shibergan, they reserve their sharpest criticism for Guantanamo. (One has to wonder which they themselves would prefer if they had to choose one.)

Which leads to the overwhelming suspicion that the criticism actually never had anything to do with compassion for the prisoners. It was always about finding some reason to criticize the US. For America-haters in Europe, this war has been an unmitigated disaster. They can't seem to find anything to complain about!