For the context of the video below and my remarks, see my previous post, Ask Obama To Veto Indefinite Military Detention of AMERICAN CITIZENS

John McCain can obfuscate all he wants, but it would be nice if he could eventually just answer the question. The plain truth is that John McCain does support the indefinite detaining of American citizens with no trial and not even any formal charges brought before an impartial judge in a hearing that is open to the public. The open to the public is an essential feature of American jurisprudence so that we don’t have to just rely on the integrity of fallible judges. The public can see for themselves what is going on and can be their own judges as to whether justice is being done.

The irony of John McCain’s justification for his policy is that the policy in question played a major role in the release of terrorist suspects back into the wild so that they could commit more acts of violence against us. If there had been an actual case against these recidivists, then the ability to bring them to trial was ruined by the illegal methods used to capture and detain them. Our methods left us no choice but to release them because we could not face up to international scorn without our giving them a fair trial. Of course, even using the word recidivist presumes without proof that they were terrorists before they were captured and were not turned into terrorists by their experience in captivity.

Some people suffer through horrible experiences and take away the lesson that no human should have to go through that same experience. Others, like John McCain, seem to take the lesson that if it was done to me, I want to be able to do it to someone else that had nothing to do with the incident that involved me.

I pity poor John McCain, but why does he have to thrust his misery on the rest of us? Is this some sort of revenge for what he went through? I suppose I could actually understand, but not condone, that motivation. Understanding such a motive, I can feel guilty for being a citizen of a country that sent John McCain to his fate, and still reject the policy that would allow us to send other people to that same fate. See, lesson learned.

As for Rand Paul (and his father Ron Paul), they do have some philosophical points of view with which I can agree even though they also have points of view that I find to be poorly thought out and ultimately very destructive.

I discovered this video by seeing it on the Google+ page of Jos Duerinck.