Stop With The Cowardice
Over at ABC, Jake Tapper notes Obama Administration Asserts Uighur Detainees Have No Right to Come to US.
Uighurs are a Turkic people, like the Uzbeks, Tajiks, etc. of central Asia. Their homeland in now in northwestern China, with small groups spread around the world. They are normally Muslims, if they are religious.
The US kidnapped a group of Uighur refugees who were fleeing the fighting in Tora Bora during the early days of the Afghanistan campaign. It has already been shown that they weren’t involved with the Taliban or al Qaeda, and were not combatants.
As they had fled China because of government persecution, they can’t be sent there – the Chinese authorities are not exactly the “forgive and forget” kind of people. A US court has already told the government to bring them to the US, where they could join existing Uighur communities, mainly on the West Coast.
The attitude of the Obama administration is, frankly, stupid. These people have been shown to be innocent bystanders by multiple authorities. There is no justification for continuing to hold them. They are victims, not criminals. The US government is the party at fault. We have already held them for years beyond the point when we knew they were innocent. They have rights as human beings. This attitude of the Obama administration recalls the Taney opinion in Dred Scott – “that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
2 comments
b-b-b-but… they have air conditioning! and tv! and dvd players! and sports equipment! who wouldn’t want to live out the rest of their lives in luxury like that?
/sarcasm
hipparchia´s last blog post..[for reference]
They also had three hurricanes last year, which is not exactly something one experiences on the steppes. It’s an educational experience, a seven year summer camp. 😈