Today, President Obama issued an executive order to halt the torture of suspects, close down the Guantanamo detention center, ban secret CIA prisons overseas and fight terrorism "in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." According to the order, Guantanamo will be closed within a year.
I think this is a good idea. It is wrong to keep men without charges. Some horrible things have been done to the men in the Guantanamo prison camp. There are accounts of torturing and abusing the prisoners to get info from them. Some have even been waterboarded, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning.
Interestingly, 48% of Americans want Guantanamo to remain open. There are questions that remain unanswered. Where will these men go? Will they return home with even more resentment and kill even more Americans? Yes, closing Guantanamo will restore moral authority, but will it strengthen national security? These policy changes will jeopardize U.S. ability to get intelligence about terrorist plans or to prevent attacks. Obama, however, is certain that the nation's security is strengthened — not weakened — when the U.S. adheres to "core standards of conduct", saying "We don't torture".
So far, it seems Obama has been focusing alot on foreign policy.
5 comments:
This is a good mark on Obama's track record for people that are not as scared for the safety of the United states.
This might have been an extreme step but I don't know I think it was the right Idea.
I agree. President Obama closing down Guantanamo is a good way. Yes, they are treating criminals, but there is a humane way to treat criminals. I find it interesting as well that 48% of Americans want Guantanamo to stay open...I wonder if it is just because they're bitter at those who committed brutal crimes and think that they deserve this sort of treatment.
Quite impressive in how Obama took immediate actions to improve our nations image. I say he is being very wise as he took this as one of his first steps in transforming our nation into a more trust worthy and reliable country, where we can "change" and improve our lives for the better future.
I agree with practically everything that was already said in previous comments. As one of Obama's first moves, I think that this closing shows that Obama will stay true to his word. He's very big on the United States' image, which is pretty important considering that we're currently a world leader. What kind of message would it be showing the world if Americans denounce crime and torture, but then use extreme forms of interrogation on criminals of other countries. Yes, they are criminals, and some of them are very dangerous, but that doesn't change the fact that it would be incredibly hypocritical. With regards to Sam's comment, I think that such a large percentage of Americans are opposed to the closing because we're dealing with a touchy subject. We're balancing our safety with morality, and I think that for all of us, this is a very difficult predicament to deal with. I think one of the main concerns of many of those people (which is also floating in the back of my mind), is the question of what we're going to do with these criminals. Guantanamo is in a very isolated region. Now that Guantanamo is closing, I wonder where these criminals will end up, because I can't think of any country that would willingly accept them.
Potential information/safety vs. Morality
Well, whether or not these "secret" prisons are closed down is overall more of a morality issue than something that will have a profound effect upon our nation. As many of these prisons are "secret" (Guantanamo, for instance, isn't very secret anymore), we may not truly know if they are all ever closed down. regardless of this, declaring his intention to close these prisons was likely a smart move by Obama.
I am pretty sure, however, that anybody seen as a big enough threat to go to Guantanamo would not be released back into society. Maybe a regular prison.
*Maybe we can just send them all to Australia. A large number of the first settlers of Australia were criminals transported from England, after all...
**I actually feel like I've read something somewhere that Australia and several other European nations have offered to take in these released prisoners...though I'm not sure whether or not that is true.
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