Guantanamo is a situation created by Republicans, solutions for which are opposed by Republicans and used by Republicans as another unfair charge against Obama.
The Bush administration used a piece of a foreign country from which the host nation has been trying to evict us for over half a century as a dumping ground for anyone suspected of posing a risk to the U.S. The fact that the Bush administration released over half of their detainees without charges attests to the cavalier attitude taken in imprisoning these people to begin with.
The Bush administration simultaneously claimed that we were at war with the terrorists but that the prisoners of this war were not protected by the Geneva Convention. Because the prisoners were held out of the country and were not considered prisoners of war, the Bush administration declared themselves free from any standards of human decency and proceeded to torture the prisoners.
The torture of the prisoners did not guarantee any valuable intelligence, but it did guarantee that the U.S. could not use any of their statements in any legitimate tribunal either against the tortured prisoner or against any other prisoner reported on by the tortured prisoner. The torture also guaranteed the enmity of the rest of the civilized world.
When Bush's term was finally over, congressional Republicans and local Republican politicians took up the fight by refusing to support either detaining the prisoners on U.S. soil or trying them in U.S. civilian courts. To suggest that U.S. federal prisons were inadequate to the job of holding high-risk prisoners is ludicrous as is the notion that trying these accused terrorists in a civilian court is a threat to our centuries old judicial system.
Under these impossible circumstances, Obama has none the less made progress in fulfilling his pledge to close Guantanamo. He has assigned a handful of prisoners to the few countries willing to take them. He cannot send the bulk of them back to their native countries because whether these prisoners were terrorists when they were imprisoned, a decade of incarceration and harsh interrogation has made many of them into terrorists. He has also established rules for military tribunals, which will uphold the American standards of justice, but that wasn't sufficient for some Republicans.
And finally, after creating this tremendous stain on the reputation of our nation, the Republicans are criticizing Obama because he is not fixing their problem fast enough. This is another instance of the arsonists criticizing the fire department.
Written in collaboration with Frank Suttell.
Follow Dal LaMagna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DalLaMagna
I mean, you do realize that Barack Obama can reverse ALL of this with the stroke of his pen, right?
You do realize that George W. Bush has had no voice in this matter for over 2 years now, right?
The only thing stopping Barack Obama from closing Gitmo and moving the prisoners to the mainland is the fierce response from the AMERICAN PEOPLE that this would provoke.
George Bush has zero - nothing, nada - to do with this.
The President can do it. With the stroke of a pen, and an order to Secretary Holder and Secretary Gates.
He can.
He just won't.
And most of us knew that it couldn't be done, for the reasons I state here, 2.5 years ago.
But then again, we don't live in a bubble.
Yes, it's Obama's problem now, but it'll be in the history books FOREVER that this was BUSH'S CREATION!! That's inescapable!!!
You can't set a fire, then blame the firefighter for trying to put it out!
Even though the firefighter swore to the whole nation that he would put this fire out, and even though this firefighter can - with a pen, and not even a hose - put this fire out.
He won't. He doesn't want to. He has changed his mind and realized that (sit down, this is going to sting)
President George Walker Bush was right.
This is 100% Obama's now. Don't be a hater...
Folks blaming Obama for not fulfilling his campaign promise of closing down Gitmo are being political and siding with his opponents to discredit him.
Deal with it.
The vote is the latest setback for the Obama administra tion, which has been widely criticised by supporters for deciding to restart the controvers ial military tribunals for detainees, first establishe d by President George Bush, but halted by Obama when he came to office.
The 90-6 vote in the Senate follows a similar decision in the House of Representa tives last week - a clear sign to Obama that he may struggle to convince the Democratic -controlle d Congress to agree with his plans to shut down the detention centre and move the 240 detainees. "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/close-guantanamo-funding-senate-obama
The left is upset because he promised to close it in a year. Not "well if Congress lets me." a definitive, though broken, promise.
Once he didn't close it in a year, it became his issue to live with.
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-22/politics/guantanamo.order_1_detention-guantanamo-bay-torture?_s=PM:POLITICS
He signed the order, but the entire Congress refused to enact it. That's where we're at!
It restores my faith in humanity and the future of our country when out of hundreds of liars and bashers, a truth teller emerges.
Thank you for this concise and honest article.
Sadly, it will not generate thousands of comments as the maligning articles do, but what can we say? That's America, where bad is headlined, and good is silenced.
But then, federal trials would make sense, and when has the 'right thing' been anything more than a GOP campaign catch phrase.
The problem is not simplicity, it is the lack of desire from Congress to agree with that plan. They all voted against it, and against any funding for the President to carry it out. Period!
The whole "Guantanamo thing" is supposed to just go away.
I mean, we wouldn't want our Nobel Peace Prize-winning President to be accused of torturing prisoners and being a war criminal.
Right?
Cite your sources for the assertion that:
a) He "cannot" send them to their home countries; and
b) that many who were not terrorists when they were caputred but have been converted to terrorism now.
Also how do you calculate the "decade" you cite. No one was detained in 2001 - and the prisoners were not all caputed and detained in 2002. Obama's admin took over in 2009 - are you suggesting for the last 2 years under Obama these people have continued to be subject to harsh interrogation ? If not - how do we get to the 10 years you stated ?
Opinions are fine - but just making things up to make your argument work is minor league column writing at its best.
b) A recent U.S. intelligence assessment said that five detainees released during Obama's presidency have engaged in or are suspected of engaging in terrorist or insurgent activity. During the Bush administration, more than 500 prisoners were released and the recent report by the Director of National Intelligence said as many as 150 of those former detainees have engaged in or are suspected of participating in efforts to harm the United States.