by Jodi L. Nielson

Created on: January 30, 2010

We are a nation at war.  Agree with it or not, it is a fact.  And a consequence of war is the need to contain and confine enemy combatants captured in the course of combat operations.  Currently, these enemy combatants are being housed at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, also known as GITMO.  More than a few of our politicians want to turn the discussion of closing GITMO into a purely political argument.  But they need to understand that this is much more than a political issue.  It is a matter of national security.  More specifically, it is a matter for the military to handle, not those who decided to send them to war.

The arguments to close GITMO are rooted in the worst case scenario of political correctness gone wrong.  They’ve said that operations at GITMO have given America a black eye.  They’ve said the enemy is using the very existence of GITMO as a tool to recruit new terrorists.  They’ve questioned the use of enhanced interrogation techniques used to obtain vital intelligence regarding future attacks.  But they don’t want to close it and cease the incarceration of enemy combatants, no, they just want to move them to federal prisons right here in the United States.

These “suspected terrorists” are actually being very well cared for at Guantanamo.  They have access to excellent medical facilities, are fed meals that nutritionally balanced and in keeping with the tenets of Islam.  They are issued copies of the Quran and prayer mats and calls to prayer are played 5 times a day—also in keeping with the tenets of their religion.  They are allowed to socialize and exercise.  Their living areas are kept clean, with fresh linens and some comfort items.  And are allowed, upon arrival, to send a postcard home to friends and family letting them know where they are and how they are doing.   In no other war have enemy combatants been treated so fairly. 

The existence of Guantanamo is not the catalyst for these terrorists to continue their dark mission.  Their recruitment tool is not that Guantanamo Bay exists, but that America exists.   Their hatred is not aimed at Guantanamo, but at the “infidels” that populate the “capitalist West.”  Politicians have decided to use GITMO as the scapegoat, but the truth is that terrorism existed long before GITMO was made the operational center

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