Editorial — This isn’t us: Government must reverse legal abuses of the War on Terror

MY COMMENT:

In fact, if we had followed the Law of War and Geneva Conventions with regard to unlawful combatants, all the former and current detainees could have been lawfully killed on the battlefield. The fact that NONE of the detainees was ever executed, beheaded, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, hung, drowned or burned alive (all things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies) is a testament to the benevolence of the United States. One moment you call continued incarceration of unlawful combatant detainees "indefinite," and the next moment you remind us that they may be held until the end of hostilities. Indeed the latter is correct. The US may, at the end of hostilities, release those held without charges. There is nothing illegal about the military incarceration mission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. If there were it would have been closed. Other countries don't insist because they treat unlawful combatant detainees much worse than we do. While working at Gitmo and then later in Iraq, with Prisoner of War US Army Military Police units, International Committee of the Red Cross physicians I worked with told me, "No one does [detainee operations] better than the US." Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT) were authorized and legal and NOT torture when performed on "a handful of detainees" at Gitmo, which resulted in "valuable information that saved many lives," according to George W. Bush in his memoir, "Decision Points." Every American can be proud of the mission at Guantanamo Bay. Political arsonists with their own agendas spread myths and lies about Gitmo in order to manipulate the political will of the United States. Gitmo, "the least worst place," according to former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, isn't perfect, but it is a small piece to the big puzzle of how we win the Global War on Terror. Sincerely, Major Montgomery J. Granger, US Army, Retired, former ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and author: "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior."