Brandon and Shafiq’s Excellent Adventure

So many of the actions taken by Bush & Co. were so profoundly wrongheaded that they were fated to unravel and collapse at some point. I don’t think it detracts at all from Mr. Neely’s personal bravery to say he is but a part of a larger undertow working against Bush’s legacy.

It’s guaranteed this photo will inflame the haters and, at the least, cause Mr. Neely to have to unlist his phone number and sign up for a PO box. But the picture does more than help humanize and personalize the knee jerk “Terror War,” in what otherwise continues to mutate in a blind, endless and paranoid “us vs. them.”
It seems to me that this image could be more easily spun the other way. People who support Bush’s way of handling things, and think Gitmo shouldn’t be closed, will look at this image and see proof that Gitmo isn’t so bad – that the people who were prisoners there were treated well, are generally happy and healthy, haven’t suffered any long-term harm from being held there, and even consider the guards to be their friends.

This picture certainly challenges my ideas about Guantanamo, torture, propaganda, resilience, motives, forgiveness, friendship, right and wrong, etc. etc.
Is this happy-go-lucky image real? Are these Bag comments real? I find this hard to take in stride after what these people have presumably been through. I’d also second what Ursula had to say. (Bush apologist: “see, not so bad”)
This is a carefully crafted image.. the former prisoners are gently and playfully restraining the former guard – one arm behind the back, gentle hands on the shoulder, all smiles and laughter. The space is clean and clear, with no reference to go by. Everyone is in brand new clothes with fresh hair gel. I smell ROVE all over this kind of set up.
I would hope that this kind of forgiveness and happiness and joyful play would be possible in the far far future, but seeing this in the first month of the new decade after Bush’s torture/terror fest — this is hard for me to believe. Guantanamo isn’t even closed..

Pity they didn’t run more (any) of their actual experiences in that NYT fluff piece.

Well said.

great