[gitmothrow]

Dear future generations,

Clueless middle class Western programmers on Hacker News believed everything some guy in prion said and thought they understood national security realities better than the president of the US.

And they made a bunch of brave comments. Much karma was exchanged.

Love, 2013

[rthomas6]

"Dear 2013,

Nostalgia tells me that your time was a simpler time, when people cared about politics/kids had morals/people were nicer. Also I learned in history class that Barack Obama was a great president who took the first steps toward universal healthcare. They talked about Guantanamo Bay for part of one day. The necessities of war are horrible sometimes; too bad they had to do that."

Seriously though, this is just one of the things that will be glossed over and never really talked about by future generations, similar to former practices such as the US's sterilization of minorities, or engineering bloody coups in Latin America to instill brutal dictators. Or our injustice to Native Americans.

[ricardobeat]

Maybe in the US, but elsewhere the Latin American coups and Native American genocide are not, and will never be, "glossed over".

[ditojim]

our version of universal healthcare isn't that impressive..

[Andrew_Quentin]

Now you guys invent a time machine and come to tell us which of these two commenter is right.

Although technically they both can be right, what we are interested to know is if you future guys, like us, consider the right to a free trial as a fundamental and unbreachable right in any circumstances.

Sure, we believe you can kill enemy combatants, but if they surrender, we believe they have a right to a free trial within 60 or 90 days of detention.

So come back and tell us how our government is able to flounder the most fundamental rules and principles of law.

[sequoia]

'Someone deserves the right to a defend himself in court and face specific charges before being thrown in a dungeon for life, being tortured and denied even the right to die? Ha- what a naive perspective.'

It must make you feel very clever and worldly-wise to dismiss people thus.

[arrrg]

This is the most obvious of obvious human rights violations. It’s blatant. How anyone can defend it is beyond me. Holding someone for years without trial is barbaric and disgusting.

[jpxxx]

I can put up with your smug, cowardly, evil war nerd horseshit, but not when it's from a throwaway.

Fuck you, fuck this encroaching Reddit-flavored nonsense, thank you HN, and goodbye HN.