Obama bows to... reality

There's no doubt it has been used as a recruiting tool, Rafique. However, I don't know anyone who is active in the region who thinks that closing Gitmo and bringing the detainees (unlawful combatants, though they are) to some facility on American soil is going to mitigate that effect much (if at all). Ask yourself if you think the irhabists are more likely to respond with: (1) "Well, our brothers are in legitimate American prisons facing legitimate American judicial proceedings... Clearly, no injustice is being done to them..." or (2) "The evil American imperialists have moved our brothers to a different prison, but they are still being tortured, disrespected, and mistreated by those who reject the one true God." . . . In terms of influencing the Arab and Muslim words, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference whatsoever, even among their more moderate and liberal constituents.

I do think, however, that it will score us some points with the Europeans and other Western nations who are less conspiratorial, have greater faith in the American judicial institutions, and believe that we are resolving the matter in a manner consistent with their interpretation of international custom. Moreover, in terms of domestic political dynamics, there's no doubt that many liberals detested the very concept of Guantanamo, viewed it as a symbol of the Bush Administration's evil, and will be pleased to see it closed-- even though their transfer to other facilities on American soil, on its own, confers no different status, legalistically, for the detainees and really doesn't change whatsoever our challenge to figure out what we're going to do with (unlawful) combatants from a conflict that won't be ending in the next generation... Personally, if that's the price that must be paid to secure the support of liberals in the multi-generational struggle against irhab, then I think it's an easy call. (Now if it doesn't help to secure liberal support for the effort, well, then it's all a moot point).

But as with so many things in foreign policy, one must look beyond the immediate effects to see why we are taking a particular action, because not everything is always as it seems.

--Bobby