Log In | Register
The major theme of Barack Obama's campaign was change, a sharp diversion from the policies of the Bush administration. The electorate, Mr. Obama and his advisers were all confident that many changes, some of them sweeping, would be effected once the new president took office.
One of Obama's recurring pledges was that he would close the prison facility at Guantanamo, eliminate Bush's system of military tribunals, and determine the guilt of the detainees through the guarantees of American jurisprudence. But the harshness of reality almost always trumps the rhetoric of idealism, and the president's Guantanamo experience has been no exception.
As if it were a warm-up for Mr. Obama's headline act, for some time members of Congress have been performing an amusing and instructive scene of political theater in which members of both parties have asserted that no detainee would ever set foot on their soil. By all means, Mr. President, do close Guantanamo, but don't even think of sending the terrorists to my state.
This week, the president reiterated his desire to close the facility, but he admitted that it was not going to happen any time soon. Indeed, he floated the idea of introducing legislation to codify the Bush policy of prolonged detention. Because "prolonged" has no objective measure, some chagrined observers ascertained that the practical implementation of such a policy may result in indefinite detention, although to be accurate "indefinite" means exactly what it says---of no specified duration---and does not mean forever. Nevertheless, some of Obama's supporters are apoplectic about Obama's subsuming academic ideals under the realities of American politics, but it is only the latest in a series of executive decisions that demonstrate that campaigning isn't governance.
And to underscore the political infeasibility of unilaterally changing policy in a system of shared powers, the House of Representatives---charged by the Constitution with the authority to write checks to pay the nation's bills---soundly defeated the legislation to pay for Gitmo's closing in a startling display of bipartisan agreement. Nothing forges solidarity like political expediency.
In his televised address from the National Archives, Mr. Obama said that the prolonged detention of these detainees was the most important question we will face. But for Americans who are struggling with the realities of our weak economy, how we treat accused terrorists is not very important at all, and for many people the fact that about 15% of released detainees return to combat against us means that legal niceties can wait until we have time for them, if ever. The president is right that the fairness of a nation's legal system defines its character, but try to use that abstraction on someone whose time is fully occupied with more mundane matters like feeding his family.
Comment collapsed by the community
Start Tracking
Stop Tracking
Thanks. As much as an extremist as I am---and as we all tend to be on some subjects, especially as we get older---I find it useful to cut to basics, something we all learned as brand new soldiers.
