Can't hardly blame 'em. They've spent how many billions (trillions?) on all this. We can surely indulge them with a little pre-election parade to show the masses where all that blood and money went? Mission Accomplished!

2002 Elections--"Slam Dunk" tactic

2004 Elections--4 more monkey years

2006 Elections--not so good

2008 Elections--maybe???

The guy in the middle looks like such a peaceful, tolerant, bike-riding, all-embracing chap! Someone you could entrust your children to at summer camp.

"it's unlikely that they can be tried speedily, meaning the cases probably won't be heard before the Bush administration leaves office next January.

"I will move as quickly as I can, but we will take our time and we will not be bullied by the government," said Army Col. Steve David, the chief defense counsel in the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions."

That sounds like they're trying to 'game' the election?!

If not to game the election, is it simply to get the rest of the world to hate us more?

Like they could hate us more...
But wait, I thought everyone wanted to give them trials in court? Now not so much? I dont understand.
McCain thinks they should be transferred to Ft. Leavenworth and get public lawyers and trials in the US. That would be interesting. Do we find a "jury of their peers"? Otherwise, would it still be a "kangaroo court?"

And in the next war, will this set a precedent that forces us to give all prisoners we collect from the battlefield a trial in US courts? That would have made WWII interesting...

prisoners we collect from the battlefield

That sounds good if you say it fast enough. But what about the ones that were handed over to us by Afghan warlords in exchange for cash rewards? And how about -- for example -- the al Jazeera cameraman, now on hunger strike, who was mistakenly captured but is still at Guantánamo because he refused to accept spy missions as a condition to his release? There is no possibility of a fair trial for any of these people at this stage, given their long imprisonment and their mistreatment at the hands of our government. Equating them to prisoners of war also is hopelessly flawed, since they do not represent any established nation or political entity that is (or was) at war with the U.S.

We Americans have grown complacent over the last year or two since the election campaigning began and erased The War Against Terror (TWAT) from the front pages of our newspapers (and since the National Intelligence Estimate threw ice cold water on Bush's plans for war on Iran).

It's time for them to ratchet up the fear again.

RE pdxjim: It's the Bozo's on either side of beaten up prisoner that scares me.

Equating them to prisoners of war also is hopelessly flawed, since they do not represent any established nation or political entity that is (or was) at war with the U.S.

I agree.
Unfortunately, the folks who keep bringing up the Geneva Convention cant see it.

The timing of Bush's visit to Africa and his self horn tooting about U.S. assistance with the AIDS crisis is also suspicious. This guy hasn't given a rat's behind about the Third World over his 7 years in office. Why now?

Equating them to prisoners of war also is hopelessly flawed, since they do not represent any established nation or political entity that is (or was) at war with the U.S.

Try holding a democratic election in Saudi Arabia, then al queda(sp) will be an established political entity. It's funny. The Bush talks about bringing democracy to the Middle East, yet Egypt and Saudi Arabia, our biggest allies there, are not democracies. When are we gonna attack them.

"The timing of Bush's visit to Africa and his self horn tooting about U.S. assistance with the AIDS crisis is also suspicious. This guy hasn't given a rat's behind about the Third World over his 7 years in office."

Usual Kevin....you don't know what you are talking about. Whatever you say about Katrina, the Iraq War, whatever. It doesn't erase the FACT that this administration has done more for Third World Africa than ANY that has preceded it.

Let's all sing along to McCain's theme song, "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran!"

"The timing of Bush's visit to Africa and his self horn tooting about U.S. assistance with the AIDS crisis is also suspicious. This guy hasn't given a rat's behind about the Third World over his 7 years in office. Why now?"

It's actually for a very good reason. He's there to tell them that we're not going to continue throwing money at the continent if we don't start seeing some results.

A better question would be, "This guy hasn't given a rat's behind about the Federal Budget over his 7 years in office. Why now?".