It's time to close Guantanamo

[Rainshield7]

Obama says that it's about time to close Guantanamo and I can't agree with him more. A place where people have no rights really makes no sense to me. Where do you stand here?

President Obama has a good point and is making a good decision to close down Guantanamo Bay. I mean it is funny since the movie "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" took place in that facility. If the president closes Guantanamo then so be it.

 

[Gabriel]

I'm kind of torn between wanting to keep Guantanamo open or having it closed. If you keep it open just for intimidation purposes without letting the public know that torture practices have already been dropped, notorious terrorists will have every reason to disclose top secret information. The fear of torture will grip them after all. Closing Guantanamo on one hand will make America less of a hypocrite.

The longer it remains it adds legitimacy to its existence and that's why it needs to close down. Intimidation renders a civilized country no better than those who use these techniques. There are legitimate ways to hold suspects and torture (although how torture is defined seems to be very strict) is a crime against humanity. Each country has there own laws and the limits they can use, I don't feel having a detention center where laws don't exist is a way forward to peace, if anything it gives others more leverage to attack.

 

[starshine]

The fact that the US keeps open a place where human rights do not exist is despicable in itself. There is no valid excuse for it; Obama said before, years before, he intended to close it, and yet he didn't. Guantanamo makes the country no better than other countries with no human rights, really. It might not be in the US, but it is under the control of the US, and turning a blind eye is no better. It's like the saying, "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now." Closing this crap place is way overdue; the only way to start making it better is to close it down, and make sure no other places like it ever open again.

 

[gmckee1985]

Gitmo should remain open and we should quit releasing prisoners so frivilously. A lot of tax payer money was spent on that prison so we should make the most of it. Theres no sense in shutting it down really. It was built for a good purpose.

 

[xTinx]

The longer it remains it adds legitimacy to its existence and that's why it needs to close down. Intimidation renders a civilized country no better than those who use these techniques. There are legitimate ways to hold suspects and torture (although how torture is defined seems to be very strict) is a crime against humanity. Each country has there own laws and the limits they can use, I don't feel having a detention center where laws don't exist is a way forward to peace, if anything it gives others more leverage to attack.

I presented two options. In my other option, my real point is that rather than close Guantanamo, why not reform it instead? And here's the twist: no one has to know about the reforms except for those who're sent there. "Intimidation" is necessary to facilitate the extraction of salient information from all its prisoners. Let me just point out something I find disturbing: although we keep saying torture is inhumane or whatever, just imagine if it were your family or friends who died through the hands of those terrorists sent to Guantanamo. I'm not saying torture is right, but from the point of view of many those affected, it's a cheap price to pay for taking the lives of several innocent people. Not everyone can pretend to be "humane" all the time, you know.

 

[Gelsemium]

I think it would be hard to make a reform on Guantanamo xTinx, I mean, that brings so many memories, that it's better to be left behind. More, if I am not mistaken that is not even in the US right?...

 

[Gelsemium]

For a major democracy that purports to safeguard human rights and liberties, a facility like Guantanamo that is run with tax payers money is such a major blot in the American international arena.In light of the recent revelations of what the terror suspects endure while in detention,it would be imperative to close the facility without further delay.

Well said Jeremy, very well said. Sure, we are fighting terror, but we cannot act like them. The US after all is a democratic country and acting like that violates all the sense of human dignity.

 

[robespierre1789]

Why is the US Government keeping its shady activity in Guantanamo?

The whole world is pointing out the hypocrisy behind the fact that US keeps pointing out Human Right violations in Cuba while most of those violations take place in the torture chambers of Guantanamo.

What is it that makes every American government unable to become a 'smart power' and comply with what the public opinion expects?

 

[kittyworker]

Right now its a case that American's don't want terrorists brought into America even to stand trial. We rather keep them off shore in an isolated location were if they do break out they are surrounded by a Military Base. Closing Guantanamo isn't going to stop the torture and other human rights violations. They will just occur at other Black Sites around the world.

 

[Kamarsun1]

Obama says that it's about time to close Guantanamo and I can't agree with him more. A place where people have no rights really makes no sense to me. Where do you stand here?

I though they closed it a little while ago. It was sure a lot of talk about this place in the news. We need to get rid of it, but will it close or just move to a remote location? I'm sure there are many Guantanamo's out there that we don't know about.

 

[Kamarsun1]

Why is the US Government keeping its shady activity in Guantanamo?

The whole world is pointing out the hypocrisy behind the fact that US keeps pointing out Human Right violations in Cuba while most of those violations take place in the torture chambers of Guantanamo.

What is it that makes every American government unable to become a 'smart power' and comply with what the public opinion expects?

I think this was a story that leaked out to the public. I'm sure there is many places like Guantanamo but the people are unaware of it. You don't become a super power without doing some pretty dirty things, and the truth is this nation was founded on some pretty devilish behavior so it does surprise me at all.

 

[gmckee1985]

Gitmo should remain open. The insistence of Obama and the Democrats on closing it is silly and baffling. What we should do is keep it open and quit releasing the cretins housed there. That'd be a good start.

 

[saastil]

How about we close Gitmo and stop rendition to other countries? We're a highly developed superpower, there's no reason we need to torture people in such a disgusting way.

 

[Gelsemium]

I though they closed it a little while ago. It was sure a lot of talk about this place in the news. We need to get rid of it, but will it close or just move to a remote location? I'm sure there are many Guantanamo's out there that we don't know about.

There is not a huge interest or rush in closing it because it's really convenient to send people there you know, where they don't have rights and can be abused. It doesn't seem fair though.

 

[User911]

What about the rights of the American people? Those men in Guantanamo sought to destroy American lives on a mass scale. At least more than a few have gone back to plotting against us. I understand that American citizens have rights when they are accused of crimes and I fully support that. However, when terrorists essentially declare war on us by their actions, I side with American soil and American people. By letting these terrorists go, we are only making the world a more dangerous place. There are MANY people in our regular prisons whose crimes are so heinous, they remain in prison for the rest of their life. Why give non-American citizens more rights than our regular prisoners? There is nothing wrong with letting those men sit in prison for the rest of their life. They should have considered the consequences of their actions BEFORE they attempted to kill thousands of Americans.