by Patrick Bodsford

Created on: January 27, 2009

Many people are thrilled by the fact that President Obama has signed the executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. I, for one, cannot agree with his decision. In fact, there really seems to be no rationale behind this decision, nor a plan of action after the prison actually closes. The President even stated that there is still no plan of action for dealing with the detainees after the closing.

Supporters of closing the camp in Cuba have expressed a number of reasons for their support. Many argue that the US has been torturing the detainees. If this is true, then fix the problem, don't close the facility and then try to figure out what to do next. We haven't even come to a consensus on what torture actually is. Is water boarding torture? Probably, but many of the things being done to the detainees are done to make them uncomfortable, and to persuade them to cooperate. Should we really consider these tactics torture? I think not. If we consider a major Federal prison here in the states and we discover that a group of guards have been beating inmates, should we close the prison because we look bad? Of course not. We hold those guards accountable, we change the policies, and we monitor the actions that are taken going forward. Closing Guantanamo Bay at this point is purely political and symbolic, and does nothing to increase the security of this country.

Other supporters claim that the detainees have rights. Well, sure they do. They have basic human rights. They do have the right not to be tortured. They do not have rights reserved for the citizens of this country guaranteed by the US Constitution. These people are prisoners of war. They were taken prisoner on the battlefield because they were attempting to kill Americans. Why should these people have the legal rights of an American citizen accused of a crime? Why should we give these people the same rights that they would support taking away from us? These prisoners are fed meals and allowed to practice their religion through prayer. The media then leads us to believe that the rest of he world finds our treatment of these detainees as abhorrent while the terrorists make videos of the beheading of our countrymen.

By no means am I suggesting an eye for an eye. What these terrorists have done to the people that they have taken prisoner is nothing short of animalistic, and I do not support our acting in kind. However, I do feel that the US has every right to act pro actively in ensuring the security of this country. The Geneva Convention offers the world guidelines as to how prisoners of war should be treated. The problem is that we are not fighting another country. We are instead fighting factions. These are factions of radicals that have twisted the teachings of a religion and kill in the name of their god. These are people that will not compromise. These are people that will not be reasoned with. These terrorists believe that all in the west must die because it is god's will, and they would gladly die for their cause. This is not a philosophy that we can reason with. We cannot allow these prisoners to walk away from imprisonment.

All we need to do to see the future resulting from the President's actions is consider the new deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Said Ali al-Shihri, released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007, has now risen to hold this position. We really need to take a hard look at this decision and accept that it is not in this country's best interest.

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