Some of the lost souls at Guantanamo Bay are a bit down. So down that they just don't feel like eating:
Shalabi, 32, an accused al-Qaida militant who was among the first prisoners taken to Guantanamo, and Ahmed, about 34, have refused to eat for almost two years to protest their conditions and open-ended confinement. In recent months, the number of hunger strikers has grown to two dozen, and the military is using force-feeding to keep them from starving.
An Associated Press investigation reveals the most complete picture yet of a test of wills that's taking place out of public view and shows no sign of ending, despite international outrage.
The restraint chair was a practice borrowed from U.S. civilian prisons in January 2006. Prisoners are strapped down and monitored to prevent vomiting until the supplements are digested.
International outrage? At what? Well, apparently the outrage is that we expend efforts to keep them alive by force-feeding them:
The British human rights group Reprieve labeled the process "intentionally brutal" and Shalabi, according to his lawyer's notes, said it is painful, "something you can't imagine. For two years, me and Ahmed have been treated like animals."
I hate to sound like some bleeding heart who doesn't understand the difference between "peace" and "defeat," but my heart goes out to the two hunger strikers. I have no desire to be brutal.
So I say stop force-feeding them. Let them die. If they want to die without taking any of us with them, I count that as progress.
I feel so culturally sensitive!
