Homebound Hicks

David Hicks, the first inmate of Guantanamo Bay to face a United States military tribunal, was flown back to his hometown, Adelaide, in Australia to serve the remainder of his jail term there in a maximum security prison. He was a former outback cowboy and used to skin kangaroos for a living but was found guilty providing materials to assist al Qaeda’s terrorist plots and attending terrorist camps in Afghanistan. David Hicks would be kept in a cell similar to the one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and would be allowed no or little interaction with other convicts. However, visits from family members would be allowed in an estimated weeks time but will still be monitored and no physical contact is allowed.

I feel that David Hicks deserved his sentence. Assisting and supporting terrorist movements are very serious crimes, as this would potentially put many innocent lives in critical danger. Terrorists are people who believe in a cause, yet they do not just support it like regular people but instead, use brutal violence and immoral ways to support their cause. In addition, they target innocent people to eliminate. For example, during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in United States, hundreds of innocent Americans and many others of different nationalities lost their lives. This is obviously, very harmful to everyone living on earth, as one will never know when a terrorist could strike and kill.

However, I do believe that whatever wrong a person has committed, he is still eligible for a second chance and as long as he understands his wrong doings and tries his best not to commit the same mistake again, he should be forgiven. Hence, I believe it is very important to David Hicks that tax payers of his homeland Australia are willing to bring him home, a procedure which costs about half a million dollars.

To conclude, I believe David Hicks deserved his sentence but after his release, I feel he should be given a second chance as it is not fair for us to judge one just on a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes just like David Hicks, though our mistakes are less severe, as long as Hicks is willing to change, he should be eligible for another chance to prove to everyone what good he can bring to the world.

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Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18761040/