Quote Originally Posted by noonwitch View Post
I'm one of those liberals who doesn't like the idea of detaining people and depriving them of due process of law. Especially if we detain them outside of our own borders because we don't have to follow due process if they aren't in our country.

That doesn't mean I think that the detainees should be set free to do whatever. I just felt they should be incarcerated in the US, treated humanely while incarcerated and be prosecuted in the US court system.

It doesn't matter what the left's position was on Gitmo and tribunals, or whether Eric Holder's law firm did pro bono work on behalf of the detainees held at Gitmo because they didn't make the decision to release this guy. Bush's administration made that decision. If they did so under pressure from the left, well, then be mad at the Bush administration for caving.
Okay, let me explain this one more time. Combatants captured in battle are not accused of a crime, they are prisoners of war. If they are not in service to a signatory to the Geneva Conventions and conduct themselves in an unlawful manner, then they do not warrant the protections of the Conventions, either. Regardless, no matter what else happens, we can and should detain them for the duration of hostilities. That is the due process to which they are entitled as prisoners. The only reason to try them is if we believe that they have violated the laws of land warfare by targeting civilians or otherwise engaging in prohibited behaviors, but whether we choose to charge them is irrelevent to the basic fact that we can detain them as long as we are at war.