The Providence Journal (R.I.), March 4:
When Barack Obama first ran for president in 2008, he repeatedly said that he would shut down our prison at Guantanamo Bay, which he saw as a harmful symbol of U.S. injustice. Eight years later, this campaign promise remains unfulfilled.
As Mr. Obama nears the end of his second – and final – term in office, it’s clear that he’s had enough. The president is seriously considering bypassing Congress, and finding a way to close down this detention camp unilaterally.
It’s a bad strategy.
Dan De Luce, chief national security correspondent for Foreign Policy magazine, wrote last Nov. 12 that Mr. Obama always claimed to be different than George W. Bush when it came to using executive powers. Yet, after stating he “would not copy his predecessor’s use of executive orders to impose by fiat what he could not do legislatively” and wouldn’t sign statements “to implement only the parts of different bills that he wanted to,” he’s considering doing just that with Guantanamo.
Moreover, as Mr. De Luce pointed out, the president “would make the move even though Congress has passed an array of bills over the past seven years that expressly forbid him to transfer detainees from the detention center to the American mainland.”
There’s no question our political system has become exceedingly polarized. Democrats and Republicans rarely see eye to eye on issues. Bipartisan legislation is gradually becoming a figment of the modern imagination.
But that does not mean Mr. Obama should ignore Congress’ wishes about Guantanamo just because they don’t mesh with his vision. He should work with the people’s elected representatives in Congress to try to find a reasonable solution.
The key problem is the prison’s “enemy combatants” who do not observe the rules of war that trigger the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Some have suspected or known links to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. Do we really want to take the chance of releasing them back to their home countries – and putting ourselves in harm’s way? Do we want to put them in American prisons, where they could enlist new terrorists?
While Mr. Obama wants to close Guantanamo in favor of the legal protections of habeas corpus, the issue of safety and national security has never been properly addressed. If he wants this to be part of his political legacy, he must work to develop a serious plan to protect all Americans.
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