Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

More GOP NIMBYs

Two South Carolina Republicans piped up to say they don’t want the Gtmo detainees moved to their neighborhood, either. Thanks for pitching in, fellas! At this rate the detainees are going to wind up at the New York City jail on Rikers Island — which actually might be fitting. It reminds me of an exchange ...

Two South Carolina Republicans piped up to say they don't want the Gtmo detainees moved to their neighborhood, either. Thanks for pitching in, fellas!

Two South Carolina Republicans piped up to say they don’t want the Gtmo detainees moved to their neighborhood, either. Thanks for pitching in, fellas!

At this rate the detainees are going to wind up at the New York City jail on Rikers Island — which actually might be fitting. It reminds me of an exchange I had with a 10th Mountain Division soldier in the spring of 2002 when we were standing near some dead al Qaeda fighters in the aftermath of the "Anaconda" battle in eastern Afghanistan. "Sergeant, what do you think of all this?" I asked, gesturing at the strewn corpses, and their RPGs and other weapons. He glanced down at the remains of the al Qaeda men, who had been hit by a JDAM, then looked straight at me and quietly said just five words: "Sir, I’m from the Bronx."

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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