Durban, patriot or traitor?

[Ned]

By now, most of you have heard what Durbin had to say about Gitmo. He compared the US troops conduct there to the Nazis with their death camps, Stalin's Gulag and Pol Pot's killing fields. Republicans are demanding an apology. Al Jazeera is front paging the quotes. Al Qa'ida is dancing with joy. American troops are in a mood to kill.

Durbin has refused to apologize and blames the controversy on a vast right-wing conspiracy. Do you agree? Is this all about the right-wing feigning false outrage, or are Durbin's remarks beyond the pale for a US Senator?

[DinoDoc]

Godwin shall have his revenge!

[Hueij]

Okay, not being an American: Who the **** is Durban, what did he say and why should I care?

[civman2000]

I vote #3. That seems obviously to be the truth.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Hueij
Okay, not being an American: Who the **** is Durban, what did he say and why should I care?

Compared Gitmo to Nazi death camps triggering Godwin's Law and shutting down all debate on how well or badly the detainees are treated.

[Hueij]

Ah, thanks.

Gitmo is bad enough, no need to Godwinize it.

[Gibsie]

But who is Durban? Is he a good-looking celebrity, perhaps he knows tom Cruise? If not, why should anyone care for what he says?

[DRoseDARs]

Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois)

[DinoDoc]

He prefers to be called D!ck Durbin.

[DRoseDARs]

Dick isn't censored, you know that right? People just call the Vice President "Cheney" in lieu of dick.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Dick isn't censored, you know that right?

I forgot.

[DRoseDARs]

My stepdad hates being called Dick, so it's either Richard or Rich. As such, I never use Dick as a proper name for someone unless they specifically ask me to.

[lord of the mark]

I doubt hes either. Maybe he was drunk?

actually I think he intended to call the admin nazis, not the troops. Still way over the top. I think some Harry Reid, Hilary, etc, are gonna give him a good talking to. The repubs will call on them to denounce him. As long as he agrees to stay on message, and not say more stupid things, i think they wont, and that wont bother me.

Meanwhile I suspect the troops in Iraq are more concerned with winning the war there, than with hot air in Dee Cee.

[Odin]

#3, Abu-Ghahib and Gitmo are bad, but they are nothing compared to concentration camps and the slaughter of 12,000,000 people. That doesnt make torture of prisoners acceptable, though.

for making himself look like a fool by Godwinizing the debate, THAT was reprehesible. The only things that should be compared to the Holocaust are other genocides and repression and subjugation of minorities.

[civman2000]

The remarks were dumb, but the criticism takes them out of context. What he said, according the admittedly little I've read about it, was that if you read the descriptions of Gitmo without knowing what they were talking about, you'd think they were about concentration camps or gulags, etc. That's hardly saying "OMFG Bush is a Nazi!!!111!!"