My Liberal Self

This is a quick "grr" moment. Apparently the House Republicans have introduced a bill to Congress called, "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act." It basically says that any detainee being held for terrorism could not be transported to a US state without the approval of the state's governor and legislature. I get it. I understand their point. But it also bothers me how selfish we are. Plus I have another nit-picky complaint about it.

I'll start with the nit-picker: America is more than just the United States. America could be all of North America. It could be North PLUS South America. It could mean Central America. So the name itself is a total misnomer... It should also say "terrorist detainees" rather than just "terrorists" because even if the bill passes, it would not ensure that terrorists would not enter "America."

Now for the selfish part. Why is it so wrong for terrorists to be held in our own country? Let's turn this around for a minute. Let's imagine that Cuba is fighting terrorism. They have a little spot of land in our country. They use it to keep those they decide are the worst of the worst. How would we feel to have (1) terrorists and (2) detainees not even captured by us held on land that is right by the rest of our country? Why is it ok for them to be there, but not here? Fear of escape? Maybe in Cuba, they aren't as likely to get into trouble, but if they escape in the US, they could kill people? It just seems highly unrealistic. The bottom line is that they have to stay somewhere, so why try to put them off on some other country? Why not develop a humane, but secure system to deal with terrorist detainees - and if it's truly secure, then why does it matter if it's in, like, rural Montana or something. How is that worse than keeping it on the island of Cuba? Sure worse for us versus worse for Cubans - but are we seriously that selfish?