Okay so this is refreshing: A new young President that shows up ready for work on his second full day in office and who is willing to keep his campaign promises.
With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama scrapped many of the tools of the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” ordering the closing of Guantanamo’s prisons and an end to controversial interrogations, and opening the way for the release of many detainees.
While powerfully symbolic and widely applauded around the globe, The President’s plans to eventually close Guantanamo presents a host of challenges if he intends to bring dangerous suspects into the United States, including how to deliver justice and fair trials.
“The message we are sending around the world is the U.S. intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, but we are going to do so consistent with our values,” Mr. Obama said.
The President has further provided that a panel of cabinet-rank officials will advise him on how to deal with “detainees that we cannot transfer to other countries, who would pose a serious danger to the United States, but we cannot try” because of problems related to the admissibility of evidence. Hasn’t this already been done by the Bush Administration?
The President was apparently referring to a handful of top al-Qaeda operatives who have been water boarded or otherwise subject to now-outlawed interrogation methods.
Here, however, is my concern with what the new President is doing: Why does he feel he needs to move so swiftly? I think all reasonable people agree that the issues surrounding GITMO are serious and require lots of analysis, legal review, and military input. My advice to President Obama is to SLOW DOWN. Don’t allow your political advisors to paint you in a corner of having to keep your campaign promises at the expense of what is prudent and important for the nation’s national security interests. You are Commader in Chief–lead with moral authority–yes, but understand that the GITMO issue is complex and that to suspend the ongoing legal trials as your executive order did yesterday, only complictes the matter further.
More on this later as things develop, but for now: Mr. President you do not have to do everything in your first 3 days in office. You have time. We support you and we want you to succeed (despite what Rush Limbaugh says–more on that later too).