No, we still can’t close Gitmo and it is still not the president’s fault.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Wars and POW torture camps are above the President’s rank. If he or she is patriotic, they’ll salute the flag and cheer on the wars.
USians are so freaking lame. Clueless that their prejudices make them stupid. (See Chris Mooney’s latest article at Mother Jones
The only thing they hate as much as welfare for poor women and children is abortion (and free reproductive health care for all women) which guarantees that there will be more poor women and children in need of public assistance.
Releasing the torture report so that the truth about what crimes what prisoners are charged with is no longer top secret would help. There are three people capable of doing that: President Obama by reclassifying it, Dianne Feinstein by exercising the power of the chair of the intelligence committee, and Sen. Mark Udall by reading it into the Congressional Record.
It’s not their fault; it’s the fault of the grandstanding Republicans who are covering for Bush’s crimes. But they have succeeded in getting the Obama administration to dirty its hands in the same rotten policies.
If there were any issue worthy of risking a show-impeachment, returning the United States to being an honest advocate of human rights and a signatory to the International Criminal Court is the right thing to do.
Although it is not the President’s fault, the failure to come clean on this issue will stain the history of his Presidency in the same way that suspension of habeas corpus stains the Lincoln Presidency and the internment of the Japanese stains the Presidency of FDR.
“Close GITMO or we ship Dubya and Cheney to the Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
Not as satisfying as “do both”, but glass half full, etc.
it has never been the President’s fault
…for not closing Gitmo, the President can do something: he can announce that he is using his authority as commander and chief of the armed forces to order the military to shutter the Guantanamo prison one year from today. At that point, the detainees will go free unless Congress comes up with another solution. Put the onus on Congress to figure out what to do with them and maybe Congress will.
Of course, that kind of announcement would be political suicide for the President, and he would have to be really willing to set them all free if Congress fails to act. I don’t think the President wants to do that and that kind of announcement would be political suicide for the Dems, but it is possible.
I’m not sure how well ‘it’s not the President’s fault’ comports with this blog’s long-time complaint that liberals are afraid to fully invest in the use of power.