Quote of the day: Krulak on Gtmo’s costs

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, June 14, 2010 - 12:34 PM Share

Interesting letter to the editor of the Washington Post from retired Gen. Charles Krulak, a former commandant of the Marine Corps:

The greatest cost of Guantanamo has been to American global leadership and credibility as a nation that respects the rule of law. . . . There are not benefits to outweigh these costs. In the time that federal courts convicted 195 members of al-Qaeda and its allies, the military commissions at Guantanamo convicted three. A recent report confirmed that most Guantanamo detainees have been low-level operatives. Many were captured and turned over to the United States by poor locals hoping to cash in on a $5,000 reward. The real absurdity of the Guantanamo boondoggle is that we never needed to spend a dime to create it."

Tom: Is it my imagination, or have Marine generals and Navy admirals been more vocal about opposing torture and abuse than have Army generals?

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:LATIN AMERICA, MILITARY

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COW COOKIE

11:08 PM ET

June 14, 2010

Agree with you on Guantanamo

Agree with you on Guantanamo — it's reprehensible — but the criticism that Army generals or anyone else didn't speak up seems to skirt right to the edges of your other criticism that generals and retired generals shouldn't be involved in the political process.

My point is not to take you to task. It's that nearly 65 years after the Nuremberg Trials, we still don't have a clear way to sift between moral, ethical, political, military strategic and tactical issues. If anything, it's grown more complicated.

Saying an issue is moral just doesn't cut it because it is overbroad. Many consider it immoral not to act before an impending mistake — or at least something that is predicted to be an impending mistake. Many moral issues are not clear-cut and must be decided at the policy level.

If we insist that our military be apolitical — and that's an assumption worth questioning, if only to consider various points along the continuum — we need some framework to guide us in this decision-making process.

HUNTER

5:56 PM ET

June 15, 2010

Close the place down

I don't count - just an Army LTC (as at least one 2 -star has told me).

Interestingly enough though. Obama promised to do just that - and still it remains. indeed Bush promised to do just that - and still it remains.

ADMIRAL

5:56 PM ET

June 15, 2010

The US GULAG

Media capture is part and parcel to COIN. This site is proof of that. The US GULAG system is a very important element of COIN as well. I find it laughable that Mr. Ricks thinks people swallow the propaganda and lies spewed from chop shops like CNAS. Torture, murder, secret prisons, and terror, are part and parcel to COIN operations. This is also why the Army hires Einsatzgruppen death squads called "Contrators" (in doublespeak) to carry out extermination and torture operations.

Krulak is a general, his words can not be trusted. He is probably running info ops as well. Since this ran in the CIA dominated WP, aka PRAVDA USA, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Even if Krulak is on the up and up, he is a day late and a dollar short.