I dont think the issue at hand here is people feeling any sympathy for Al-Qaeda.

As a matter of fact even the new SecDef was pushing for the closure of gitmo, its not like everyone who wants gitmo closed is exactly a leftist.

I dont think the issue is what people do to terrorists overseas even, if theyre not Americans. (One exception being foreign nationals of friendly nations, alienating our allies by totally disrespecting their soveirenghty isnt wise in the long term IMO, and I dont think anyone has accused the Germans or even the French of being soft or lax in pursuing and prosecuting terrorists)

Its the fact that there is a very great likelihood that MOST of the people in gitmo, are in fact innocent. Its also use of secret evidence against US citizens (and citizens of friendly nations whom we have treaties/bonds with) that is at issue.

I understand the ex-military peoples concerns here, but unfortunatly have yet to see much put forth other than something that basically boils down to " terrorists are evil, so trust that the authorities are doing the right thing no matter what." With a heavy insunuation that everyone else is ignorant because we arent military people, and everyone else is trying to "help the bad guys" or dissent is the "bad guys whining".

I have a problem with that, because its EXACTLY the proper conditions for loss of liberty. The pervasiveness of that mindset is in fact possibly the number one reason I am worried so much about our future.

And Arkh, I would think yes it does apply - if the soldiers are knowingly targeting civilians for the purpose of killing civilians. Which, to the best of my knowlegde, does not happen very often in the US armed forces. And when it does happen, there are prosecutions and jailings. Which is a big difference between US and them, and a difference I hope we can keep.