By Debbie Schlussel

Remind me again why we’re spending gazillions for our soldiers to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan . . . while we release Guantanamo Bay Islamic terrorists to restock the Taliban pond.

We Had Him Like This; Now He’s Mass-Murdering Our Soldiers

New slogan:  We’re fighting them over there . . . so we can fight them over there after we release them from Gitmo?

You’d think that with the repeated return of Guantanamo Bay Islamic terrorists (you know the ones everyone keeps telling us aren’t terrorists) to positions of leadership in Islamic terrorist movements and masterminding more attacks on Americans and other innocent civilians, we’d finally get the hint.  But, no, there are more important things to worry about . . . like art therapy courses for the future planners of the Flight 253 Undiebomb.

And now, a freed Gitmo detainee is heir apparent to the Afghan Taliban’s second in command position.  Abdul Qayyum is leading the battles against U.S. troops in Marjah, Afghanistan and has risen through the ranks in his 14 months back on the battlefield after his Gitmo R&R.  His assistant in planning the attacks on U.S. and other troops is another former Gitmo guest, Abdul Rauf.  And we’re returning them back to the battlefield because . . .?  Blame both the Bush and Obama administrations and the U.S. Supreme Court for punting on this issue, as this week, the Court declined to hear a case on the Gitmo Uighurs, and the Obama administration found them a home in Sweden (a home for those who weren’t already enjoying ice cream and swimming in their new Caribbean home).

A man freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.

Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.

The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo by sending some prisoners back to their home countries or to other willing nations, while putting others on trial. . . .

Qayyum’s key aide in plotting attacks on Afghan and international forces is another former Guantanamo prisoner, said the Afghan intelligence officials as well as a former Helmand governor, Sher Mohammed Akundzada. Abdul Rauf, who told his U.S. interrogators he had only loose connections to the Taliban, spent time in an Afghan jail before being freed last year.

He rejoined the Taliban, they said. Akundzada said he warned authorities against releasing both him and Qayyum. . . .

They said Qayyum was given charge of the military campaign in the south about 14 months ago, soon after his release from the Afghan jail to which he had been transferred from Guantanamo. That includes managing the battle for the town of Marjah, where NATO troops are flushing out remaining militants.

Qayyum, whose Taliban nom de guerre is Qayyum Zakir, is thought to be running operations from the Pakistani border city of Quetta. . . .

Qayyum, who is about 36 years old, is close to the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. He has been tipped as a candidate to replace the militia’s second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was among several Taliban leaders arrested recently in Pakistan. . . .

According to a military transcript of his [Guantanamo Bay military tribunal] hearing, he said, “I want to go back home and join my family and work in my land and help my family.” In December 2007 he was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government and held in Pul-e-Charkhi jail, on the eastern edge of the Kabul.

A year later he was set free, despite warnings he would return to the Taliban, said Akundzada.

So, why did we open Gitmo? Why did we capture terrorists in Afghanistan? Why did we send them to Gitmo? It seems like a pointless–and costly (in money and American men’s lives)–exercise. If we’re gonna release hardened brutal terrorists like this to go and direct the deaths of our soldiers, why bother even being there?

I don’t get it. Do you? And clearly, at least in this case, the military tribunals aren’t all that effective, either.