Git'mo Respect - A Conservative's Perspective

Well it wasn’t the shock to end all shocks….

Perhaps the most repeated promises of his Presidential Campaign, the newly sworn in Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, would move quick to make good on it. The doors of the Guantanamo Bay prison would be closing, shutting for good, the first major policy break from the Administration of George W. Bush put into play.

It was a move that, by the best of arguments, was aimed at restoring American moral authority, both at home and abroad. After all, questionable interrogation techniques had been used there, one that, by the accusations of some, violated the base human rights of the enemy combatants being detained at the facility. If the United States is to be regain its moral authority to be seen as a world leader, then it can’t be seen as torturing its prisoners.

At home his base could almost be heard sigh a collective sigh of relieve when that first stay would be issued. Abroad, the move would find itself well received as well by world leaders such as the Chancellor of Germany who would give it her approval, saying that this… well this would go a long way in restoring America’s reputation abroad. Just don't expect a lot of help from her in dealing with the situation created by shutting the prison.

The end of Bush… the end of Gitmo… what more could people ask for? Well besides perhaps the answer to the question of what is going to happen to these prisoners.

That isn’t a tough one to figure out.

Let’s take a brief trip through time. With all things being considered equal it’s perhaps not the favorite practice of some out there, those who wish to either forget the past eight years as if they never happened, believing, as Director Spike Lee once claimed, that there are two periods of American History, Before Obama and After Obama, or because they wish to look back fondly on the eight years of President Bill Clinton as the good ole days in American politics, when the only enemy the nation had were apparently the White House Interns and the President had that issue well in hand.

Perhaps one of the least advertised aspects of the Clinton foreign policy was a practice his administration engaged in called Rendition. Quite simply, without putting too much on the details, it’s the act of shipping off your prisoners and your terror suspects, which were more than a few in number, off to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where obviously human rights are a foremost concern, so that they can “interrogate” your prisoners for you. Apparently Don’t ask, Don’t tell was more than just a military policy, it was the order of the day.

Now, let’s fast forward a few years, who is that are in the White House advising the new President on foreign policy and legal matters? Well for all those folks who sat back and longingly waxed nostalgic for the return of the Clinton Administration, it was a welcome showing of the usual suspects. Hillary Clinton in the State Department, after all the bullets she dodged from sniper fire one has to know she will be tough on terrorists, and Eric Holder, President Clinton’s Deputy Attorney General, as the soon to be confirmed head of the Justice Department. And they are not alone, the appointment process has seem to be a veritable Who’s Who of the old White House.

But don’t worry, these questionable interrogation techniques are going to stop here at home, the dark days of Gitmo are gone, American’s can sigh a sweet, long awaited sigh of relief and they will be so loved abroad that drifter teenagers can stop sewing Canadian flags to their backpacks when they go to foreign countries. Life is good.

The dirty little secret, well, just wait and see, it won’t be long until once more start shipping these prisoners out, putting them on the quickest plane to these places that will once more do our dirty work. But so long as our hands our clean we have little left to worry about. What we don’t know, it can’t hurt our reputation with the other countries of the world, right? After all, we’ll still have our moral authority in the world to lead.

The simple reality of the matter is that, whether the American people like it or not, is that Gitmo was one of those necessary evils in a time of war. Perhaps it made us queasy to the stomach to think about, perhaps it offended our collective consciences, and yet it served as a valuable tool to combat terrorism. It could have been that, at times, the methods employed crossed a line and could be considered extreme, but then when one thinks about what this country was up against then there has to come the realization that there is a necessity to take action, even if it leaves us uneasy. That is why they are called tough choices and we elect people to make them for us.

It is yet to be seen what the Obama Administration will do with enemy combatants, but if history is any example, it’s been pre-determined by his high level appointments to these positions. There, policies such as Rendition are not an act of leadership but a void of it, believing somehow that you can hold a degree of integrity while still embracing questionable means of interrogation, so long as it’s not publicly or done by your administration.

Otherwise what else are you going to do with these terrorists? Last thing any responsible President is going to want is to bring them to American shores, and give them a home here, even if it’s in a prison.

But then just a few thoughts I suppose…

Online Blogger and commentator Wyatt McIntyre is a guest contributor to Manatee Libertarian, his regular Podcasts, Blogs and V-Logs can be viewed at www.wyattmcintyre.com.