Obama To Close Guantanamo Bay

cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/12/ … index.html

Obama plans to close Gitmo, as soon as his first week.

Thoughts?

If he’d open up the rest of Cuba, it would be a good trade-off.

But after all the money we spent there, maybe he should trun it into a resort.

It’s a lot of wasted symbolism to close it, I think. And wasted money.

obama isn’t closing a damn thing

-Imp

The Govt. will close that one down because it is too famous, they will leave others open. It changes nothing except it looks good to the ignorant.

It’s not wasted symbolism - it’s diplomatic currency. The failure to recognize the value of that is characteristic of the manifold failures of the previous administration’s foreign policy.

There is no reason to close the camp until the prisoners have been processed. They should be processed, one way or another - most of them can be deported. And they should be deported - they are costing us money.

But we don’t need grand gestures - we just need to get off our governmental asses and do something. Just transferring the prisoners to a prison Alabama so we can close the prison in Gitmo won’t accomplish anything.

Transferring them here?

:laughing: :laughing: Why does that surprise you?

Sure, Smears. You could just shoot them, and we’d be done with it.

nahh Smears pile up some good Ol Alabama weed and just smoke the confessions out of em… :smiley:

I disagree. Gitmo’s become a powerful symbol the world over of American corruption, hypocrisy and freedom-posturing. Closing it is as important as not wearing a confederate flag t-shirt if you’re touring the South Bronx. Practically, transferring the prisoners doesn’t change much (you’re right they need to be processed, and many of them should have been years ago), but closing the facility itself is, like the election of Obama, crucial to the restoration of the American image abroad.

And yes, it is important to be liked.

He’s pandering to eurotrash and French college students.

Which is what rock stars do.

Sure, so? He’s a little more politically saavy and probably a lot smarter than the average rockstar.

Pandering is part of politics - so far he’s doing it wisely.

I accept that, yes. I think it’s the easy way out, though. If that’s all he does, even eurotrash will eventually see through it.

It’s the sizzle and not the steak.

I won’t fuss so much when he panders to me by giving me a two hundred dollar income tax break.

and i accept that

hopefully that won’t be all he does …

You wore me down.

sorry - i’ll try not to be so tenacious in the future

Bagram prison:

youtube.com/watch?v=N3ppw7mNW1E

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7903005.stm