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posted by martyb on Thursday August 18 2016, @12:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the gradually-getting-Gitmo-gone dept.

Al Jazeera and Fox News (Tor-friendly archived copy) report that fifteen captives have been released from the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba. The prisoners, who were captured in Afghanistan and Yemen, are being transferred to the United Arab Emirates for settlement.

There remain 61 prisoners at the camp, of whom at least 19 have been cleared for release.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:31PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:31PM (#389616) Journal

    Pretty good question. Want to submit a poll? A show of hands thing, "Who flies the American flag?"

    Personally, I do. One flies on top of my rollaway toolbox at work, another flies from my car window, another flies from my motorcycle.

    Although I'm embarrassed by my government, I am an American, and I am proud of my country.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday August 18 2016, @05:21PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday August 18 2016, @05:21PM (#389656)

    > Personally, I do. One flies on top of my rollaway toolbox at work, another flies from my car window, another flies from my motorcycle.

    I don't, and never will on my car or toolbox.
    I don't fly any flags matching any of my passports, regardless of how happy I am to have had the luck of growing up where I did.
    I've tried to explain to Americans why we don't feel the need, but few people who grew up praising the flag which hangs overhead every day seem able to relate.
    The US flag in particular comes with an excessive baggage of pride and exceptionalism. I could fly it to tell the people around me "look, I'm one of us" or to tell others "look, you're not the same as me". Not interested in either. There are moments for flag-waving and patriotic displays, like there are moments to profess your faith out loud. The rest of the time, the Golden Calf should sleep in a closet.

    > Although I'm embarrassed by my government, I am an American, and I am proud of my country.

    Therein lies the rub...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday August 19 2016, @12:33AM

    Although I'm embarrassed by my government, I am an American, and I am proud of my country.

    I felt the same way for a long time. That started changing significantly just before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I thought invading Iraq was a dumb idea and hoped it wouldn't come to that.

    And so, as I happened to be Amsterdam on February 15, 2003 [wikipedia.org] and was wandering around that beautiful city, I saw the protesters against the invasion marching freely through the streets, followed at a distance by a few Dutch police.

    later that day, I was back at my hotel and saw CNN broadcasting from New York, where protesters had not been allowed to march, rather they'd been penned in with police barricades and surrounded by hordes of police in riot gear.

    I was appalled that my country was treating peaceful protesters so badly. On that day, I was ashamed to be an American.

    The stuff that's gone on in the thirteen years since has only made me more ashamed of my country and government.

    It's sad. The ideals under which the US was founded are steadily being replaced with fear mongering, profiteering and xenophobia.

    The flag is just a symbol. And what it's come to symbolize aren't the ideals of liberty and equality under the law.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by dry on Friday August 19 2016, @03:47AM

    by dry (223) on Friday August 19 2016, @03:47AM (#389897) Journal

    Americans are weird. I've never flown my countries flag, don't know anyone who has, and other then around the beginning of July when my nation was born, never see it except at government buildings and the Legion.
    It's not a matter of not being proud of my country, its more of a matter of it only being a country that I just happen to belong to due to no effort on my part.