Oh, wait....that was before he got elected.
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| "A lawful nation, especially in a contest against the lawless, must act within the law, and to the greatest extent possible, be above reproach. To do otherwise is to lose the war, even as we win our battles. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the world." |
"ON Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge. ...." excerpted from NY Times, follow the link to read more of this alarming cautionary tale of justified injustice...
Undoubtedly, some of the most wanted, heinous criminals from the losing side are in, or were in detention at Guantanamo Bay. Undoubtedly, some of these people are guilty of countless killings, and crimes against humanity. Undoubtedly, they should not be set free.
However...there are also, undoubtedly, people in detention that are innocent, or guilty perhaps, of much much lesser things. These people also will not be released....about 90 of them, whom we (the USA) have cleared for release, but because of the stigma of Guantanamo bay, or the political status of their country, or some other extrajudicial reason, can not go home.
The problem here is the very existence of extrajudicial detention. Regardless of the circumstances, once the fight moves off of the active battlefield, we must observe some kind of well conceived due process, to operate within a transparent framework of law. To do otherwise is to abdicate our responsibility as a proponent of human rights, a lawful state, and a protagonist on the global stage.
The end does not justify the means - thousands of years of history bear this out.
The promise was to close Guantonimo. There never was a plan set forth for trials for the inmates or for any other disposition of cases involved. Political promises are just that; empty promises aimed at the emotions of the masses just like some of the emotional rhetoric going on right now is pointedly and mindlessly aimed at the masses who will not study out the implications or reasoning behind any such statements.
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