
Why Obama Has Failed to Close Guantanamo - JackPoach
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/01/why-obama-has-failed-to-close-guantanamo?mbid=synd_digg
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Johnny_Brahms
When Obama visited Sweden last time I wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece in my
local newspaper to put him to trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity.
I think most of his tries to close gitmo has been half-assed at most. Just
moving gitmo to the US mainland without changing any policies around how to
treat detainees is not good enough, and it definitely is not the same as
closing it.

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Semiapies
It's just how political polarization works in the US. Nothing changed in Iraq
until the actual pullout a free years after he took office, and Obama ramped
up the war in Afghanistan and over Pakistan, but the anti-war movement here
shut down the moment he took office.

The "they won't let him shut down Gitmo" business is exactly the same thing.
It's just a rallying cry, and strictly one to rally around the president with,
not to try to accomplish change with. Hence the literalism - it's not about
humane treatment of prisoners, human rights, or anything like that. It's about
_that one base in Cuba_. It's just excusing a failed campaign promise.

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squozzer
What speaks volumes about the business is the statement, “My interrogators
told me no one leaves Guantánamo innocent.” No matter how you got there, you
are guilty. Because once you leave, no matter what your feelings, you will
want revenge. Which makes you a terrorist in thought, if not acts.

