I have no idea how much insight Obama had into the real workings / happenings / importance of Gitmo. However, I am guessing that he did not have all information available, considering he was only a junior Senator. It worries me a bit that he was act so quickly to close Gitmo, assuming that he hasn't had all information and data needed to make the decision. Does he really know who is being held there? Does he really know the risks of not having these people there? Can something be changed about Gitmo that doesn't completely shut it down? My worry is that he does NOT know the above answers, and he is acting to hastily to shut it down. I'm not saying Gitmo should be kept open, indefinitely. But unless Obama really does have all the right information, it seems risky to act to quickly to shut it down.
Sounds to me that: 1. gitmo = bad 2. "I'm all about change. let's be different from bush and lets close it!" 3. "uhh..prez, we didn't really think this one through that much did we?" seems he is looking to make immediate big splashes as soon as he takes office for the sake of making big splashes.
Do you bother to even research something before you write your responses? Gitmo will be closed in a year, that is more than enough time to either, 1. Find a way to try and convict the people in there properly by Law so they can be put in a legitimate prison. 2. Find a home for those that should not longer be imprisoned. Secondly, if you haven't been paying attention, the stuff they are doing at Gitmo has actually caused more problems thant it solved during the short term. Now because of Gitmo, countries are refusing to extradite terrorist and suspected terorist to the United States for fear they will be tortured. By torturing them, we are losing the allies whose support we need in order to win the battle of idealogy. So basically, we got some information from the few who we got here to Gitmo, and now countries will not export them willingly, so we have cut our own intelligence throats so to speak. The only ones that go there now, are ones we get from our own forces capturing them. Considering the terrorism problem isn't only in Afganistan and Iraq, that is a lot of territory we can no longer get help from. Lastly the Presiden has to take steps to improve our standing in the world. If we are looked at as no better than Al-Qaida because we torture people ourselves, than it is hard to gain support world wide to solve the problems we have.
No argument on that. My question is: does he know all intelligence that is needed to know to make this decision from a few weeks of briefings? If so, I'm on board. If not, it seems like a rash decision. My gut tells me he hasn't been briefed on all security issues facing this country, Gitmo included.
Do you even bother to read peoples' responses before regurgitating things you have read online? This isn't a conversation about whether or not Gitmo has a positive or negative effect on terrorism, or our standing around the world. (That is clearly a huge discussion). This conversation is whether or not Obama has the data / information necessary from a few weeks of being president(-elect)
My gut is bigger than yours and tells me yours is wrong. Were all two months spent on Gitmo? If so, that is scary. If not, how much was? Does he know everything needed? It seems like a significant security issue.
I cannot answer your questions. But how long do you think it would take? I am not sure if your gut is bigger than mine. I am a retired sumo wrestler, so mine is pretty big. No, not really. barfo
By which you were inferring he made the wrong decision. I know I wasn't the only one who read between the lines.
I look forward to those born in other countries bent on the destruction of mine being given all the protections that a citizen of the United States has.
Everyone should be given a trial. I think that's my biggest gripe about it. People being held, never getting a trial. As long as they are given a fair trial, that's cool w/me, then we can go about hanging them, or firing squad, or whatever red-necked ideas you guys got!
I view them as prisoners of war who don't even have the rights of the Geneva Convention applied to them, much less the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I say we get to hold them until we deem the War on Terror over. At that point, they get sent back to their native country. The fact that many are more scared to go home than stay in Gitmo tells me all I need to know about them.
Are they closing the base or are they closing the prison? "Gitmo" was a base long before any of this happened. I don't see a reason to close the base when you could simply cease the detainment there.
