In the past few minutes we’ve had confirmation from Barack Obama the January 2010 deadline he set for closing Guantanamo Bay will be missed. Is this significant? Or just evidence of what we already know – that deciding what to do with all those held there will take a long time.
18
Nov
09
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Oh wow, a politician not delivering on his promises. This is brand new.
One, it’s not a surprise. And two, yes it is significant. Why? Because most of these detainees are innocent. And now they’re the new political football for the 2010 midterm elections.
If anyone gets upset by a politician not completely fulfilling a promise, I think they need a few more years of experience before commenting on politics. The same goes to any that actually believed when the promise was made. As for me, I believed Obama’s intent when he made the promise, but reality is very different from sales.
No surprises here. Clearly a lot easier getting into a situation than getting out of it. One more legacy of the prior administration we’re stuck with.
Margaret Tacoma, Wa
The set ‘dead lines’ are generally well intended and resolute, but they are also subject to some changes due to some new circumstances; what matters the most is that the idea or motive, behind the main issue, must not be lost sight of, and the follow up or the work, proposed to be done towards meeting the new ‘dead line’, must be made known and sincerely adhered to.
The USA caught these guys
Held them in detention not caring about human rights beacuse they are not good for the USA
and now they want the rest of the world to take care of them?
They must be kidding.
Who are those guys who want to keep that illegal detention camp, created by the USA, open and deny everyone there an honest trial.
By now they should know who is a terrorist and killer and who not.
Let them take the terrorists and killers to court and the others send them back to where they have been caught.
The USA caught them, they are allegedly a danger to the USA so let the USA judge them without delay.
I dont understand what can take so long to do that.
I have to back your statement to the hilt,Claudine.
I have to agree that this disappointing, but not surprising.
Well, it is always better to have late…than not having it at all..It was an initial promise that President Obama made when he was in his initial days in office….
=Dennis Junior=
Obama’s promise was made in good faith, the obstructions being erected by his political opponents are not in good faith. There is no genuine, legitimate reason why the Guantanamo detainees could not be moved to any on-shore detention facility today. The idea that those men are somehow more dangerous than all the sociopaths already in US maximum-security prisons is ludicrous. How many hundreds of poor people have passed through Guantanamo, been deprived of any due-process and then quietly told “Nevermind, you may leave.”? Guantanamo is a joke and a symbol of national shame. I don’t know the legislative realities but if Obama could act by executive order, he should.
Obama is a response to George Bush, but not the answer to him.
Leaving aside the issue of how absolutely terrible the whole Guantanamo Bay episode is and how damaging to World politics, lets concentrate on the President.
He seems a bit long on promises and a bit short on keeping them. I think he is seen as weak by his executives, and they won’t carry out his wishes. I’ll bet he does little or nothing about Israel, Health, Climate Change, Afghanistan or anything else.He may end G. Bay, but he won’t do it to anyones satisfaction, or with any style or elan.
In Greek Mythology, one of the labours of Hercules was to cut off the heads of the Hydra a vicious monster. He succeeded only to see several spring up to replace them.
We can all claim home grown sociopaths sitting in prisons in every country, but these terrorist animals are not US born and thus do not deserve the same rights as a US citizen. Just because all you were in denial and hated Bush so much, you accepted an inexperienced junior senator to lead the US–pure stupidity.