After years of unsuccessful suicide attempts, Guantánamo Bay finally has its first bona fide martyrs: Three Arab men hanged themselves on Saturday in their cells at the U.S.-run prison camp. (According to the military, 23 of the 460 prisoners at Guantánamo have attempted suicide a total of 41 times, though news reports have put the number much higher — at one point, says this article, 130 prisoners were on a hunger strike.)

I say “martyrs” because that’s what these men will become in the eyes of many in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The U.S. policy of holding prisoners in Guantánamo without trial or charges is like the gift that keeps on giving. It provides holy warriors with a righteous rallying cry and inspires legions of other recruits (almost certainly more than the 460 holed up at Guantánamo) to take up terrorism. Much of this could have been avoided if the Bush administration had actually followed international law in dealing with these suspected terrorists — a significant number of whom, according to the government’s own data, have never committed hostile acts against the U.S. or its coalition allies.
  
Meanwhile, Guantánamo’s base commander said — I assume with a straight face — that the triple suicide “was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” Weldon Berger at BTC News sums up the logic of this sentiment rather nicely: “Pity we can’t execute the three for this heinous assault on all we hold dear, isn’t it? Maybe once rigor sets in we can stand them up against a wall and go through the motions.”

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen