Mark Phillips: The American Question

10/30/02: She wears an American flag lapel pin.

She wears an American flag lapel pin.

At lunch I asked her, "Did you follow the news about the three Afghanis who were released from Guantanamo Bay this week?"

Of course not.

They were a 105-year-old man, a 90-year-old man, and a 35-year-old man. Said they were well-treated: good food, allowed to bathe and change clothes once a week, copies of the Koran to read. But they were chained during interrogations. They were imprisoned for ten months, in Cuba, without charges, without lawyers, without family, without voices. Ten months in which their fields were unsown, their families fed via the charity of others, their friends unsure whether to mourn for them or not.

Hajji Faiz Mohammed, 105 years old: "I was shouting and angry, and I cried when they put me in chains. The Americans took me away in a car, but I didn't know my sin." As a result of his experience he said he believes Americans are infidels and enemies of Islam.

Powerful foreigners have kidnapped you, taken you halfway across the world, held you prisoner for months, charged you with no crime. Now suddenly they release you without apology or explanation. How do you characterize them?

One hundred years ago the Socialist movement had an elegant, crystal-clear slogan which correctly summarized the alternatives. "Socialism or barbarism," they said, and, they were right. It's a pity they lost.

(This piece is also published on Mark's personal site.)

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