a home on the range

I believe I have a viable solution to the terrorism detainee issue. Since Guantánamo Bay is no longer an acceptable venue and no other country wants them, I have concluded that we should bring the detainees here - to El Paso. Well, to Fort Bliss at any rate. Why Fort Bliss? Well, there are several good reasons. Follow me on this.

I realize nobody really wants the detainees nearby, what with them being (alleged) terrorists and all, but they are still people and Fort Bliss makes perfect sense just on location alone. You see, Fort Bliss is in the high desert. This means the terrain and climate are similar to Iraq and Afghanistan and should help the detainees feel welcome and more at home. The second location related advantage is size. What most of you probably don't know is that Fort Bliss is at the tail end of the largest military reservation in the United States. Yup, that's right; the Fort Bliss part of that military reservation is bigger than the state of Rhode Island - something like 1 million acres of open high desert. That doesn't count White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base or any of the myriad of smaller installations stretching from El Paso, Texas, up to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Let's just settle on saying it is really, Really, REALLY big.

While location alone is an excellent reason, when you consider the other advantages to housing the detainees (t)here, the move becomes a no-brainer.

First, Fort Bliss is home to the 978th Military Police Company. What more can you ask for? Built in guards with the training to do the job! Then there is the fact that the government is building a wall nearby. That's right, the border with Mexico is just a few miles away.

For facilities we can build what amounts to a village. Most of the world should view this as a most humane way to house the detainees. No prison walls, no cages, just regular Afghan style housing. Of course, we will need someplace to interview the detainees so I propose a "glass house" built in the middle of the village. Why glass? So that the dozens of human rights groups can watch the interviews! I suspect the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, the Center for American Progress, Amnesty International, Cage Prisoners, the United Nations, … and the ASPCA will all want to see all the interviews taking place and this would facilitate that supervision. No chance for torture there!

Now, we all know that it would be way too expensive to build a physical wall - a new prison as it were. It costs something like $425,500 per mile of standard 10-foot prison chain link fence topped by razor wire and that is when you are buying 2000 miles of it. Hardly worth the expense considering these enemy combatants will be abiding by the Geneva Convention. On the other hand, regardless of the cost of a virtual fence (know as an integrated surveillance system by those in the industry), when you are done with it you simply pick up the parts and take them away (Put them on the border with Mexico!). This truly minimizes the overall cost. As for effectiveness, proponents maintain the virtual fence is good enough to keep 95% of the illegal border crossers out, so it should be good enough to keep 95% of the captured enemy combatants in. The other 5% shouldn't be much of a problem. See, if we use the same system both to incarcerate the detainees and protect our southern border, (alleged) terrorists will have the same access to the U.S. whether they escape from Fort Bliss or come in from Mexico. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Obviously we aren't locking these people up and it would be silly to make them sit around all day doing nothing. No, these people are doers just like our middle class. Also, television and radio are out of the question since they don't believe there is anything good that comes from our culture. (Can't you just see them clustered around a radio listening to Rush Limbaugh or a TV watching Rachael Ray? No, that just doesn't fit.) So, I propose we use them and their village to train the troops headed overseas. Don't laugh! Right now we are using El Pasoans to play the role of villagers and these folks would be, well, more authentic. Come to think of it, it would be even more authentic if we gave them weapons. Hmmm .. yes, I like that idea. Fair play; the American way.