Let the Hunger Striker Die

A problem with the U.S. is that we care about what other people think about us, and consequently many things become way too complicated. Take for instance the subject of hunger strikes. Why in the world would anybody get upset when someone goes on a hunger strike? The person wants to protest by starving himself to death, have at it. Naturally we would not want to facilitate the suicide by handing him knife, but there’s a limit to what we should do to block the event. That ends the problem of having to house the person or whatever.

Enter practicality. It seems that a large number of Guantánamo detainees were engaging in a hunger strike and the authorities were concerned about international pressure in the case of a hunger strike death. Solution: force feeding by restraint and forcing a tube down the nasal passages and into the stomach. Testimony revealed that the forced feeding is far from pleasant. Result: most striking detainees have abandoned their strikes.

What’s a good Islamist to do when he can’t even martyr himself by starvation while in custody? There is no justice.