World sees good, bad and ugly in U.S. ‘zero tolerance’ immigration debate

Let's be clear about a few things here. One, we didn't create this crisis, unlawful border crossings did. At what point do you just build the damn wall and then DEFEND your border? Second, the conditions for unlawful entry detainees was far worse during the time when our last liberal president was in office. And the law separating children of illegal border crossing parents was signed by George W. Bush, not President Trump. Now that the #FakeNews has been exposed, let's discuss this nonsense about Gitmo. Initially, in January of 2002, unlawful combatant detainees captured in the Global War on Terror, were held in the SAME facilities that Haitian and Cuban boat people were held in during the crises in the early 1990's, when President Bill Clinton was in office. Cages? 6' x 8' concrete slab, chain-linked fence holding areas, originally designed to separate trouble makers from the general population. Since these facilities were existing, and it was clear that holding potentially very valuable detainees in Afghanistan was untenable, Gitmo was the "Least worst place" we could hold them, according to then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Immediately upon setting foot at the US Military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, US forces began constructing what would become Camp Delta, a much better facility for holding detainees. The time between the original Camp X-Ray (think outdoor dog kennels), and the much improved Camp Delta, was three months. Three months. Yet, almost every Alt-Left article you see on Gitmo has the infamous picture of detainees on their knees in gravel holding areas with their hands and feet bound and wearing sensory deprivation items, such as blackout goggles and ear muffs. These are for the protection of the detainees and US and other personnel. It makes the detainee less likely to hurt themselves or others during the transition from aircraft to in-processing. Rumsfeld later regretted the transparency he allowed that resulted in such photographs, because unless you know and understand Enemy Prisoner of War Military Police Standard Operating Procedures, you would think these people were being abused. International Committee of the Red Cross representatives were on site from "Go" at Gitmo, and never once mentioned concern about this, yet because of their neutrality, could never make their observations public, positive or constructive. They did tell me however that, "No one does [detention operations] better than the US." During the time detainees were held in Camp X-Ray, US personnel who were charged with guarding and moving detainees stayed in a tent city just above the camp. The floor of the tents were dirt and shipping pallets. No air conditioning in the stifling Caribbean heat. If you worked the night shift, getting quality sleep during the day was more than a challenge. Conditions for US personnel were BELOW those for the detainees, one of my main complaints there while serving as the ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160. I detail these observations and many others in my memoir, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay." I wrote the book because of my frustration over the constant false news stories and distorted perceptions of the finest military detention operation in history.