The blaring headline accompanying this leaked reality is disappointing:
The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them. …
But should President Obama determine that Alexandria needs to play a reasonably limited role in a nationwide effort to bring justice to the Guantanamo detainees and close this unfortunate chapter of American history, I am confident that Alexandrians will stand strong as they always have: gritting their teeth, stiffening their spines and carrying the load required so that the American values of justice and the rule of law are not overridden but, rather, respected and honored, as is our heritage as a great nation.
There has been a scare campaign ever since Obama announced what was right, following up on what Adm. Mullen and Gen. Petraeus have also said was important: closing Guantanamo.
However, one community paper in Virginia responded vehemently, with what has become the usual ignorance on the subject as the guide. A letter to the editor in another Alexandria paper said no, too.
It doesn’t help that people like Sen. James Webb are against transfers as well. Another Virginia politician, Rep. Jim Moran, who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about Alexandria taking some of the detainees was greeted not so happily by his constituents.
An article in the Washington Times acts as a press release for Sen. Tom Coburn, while stating unnamed military sources are advising Congress against the transfers.
There is absolutely no reasons that Alexandria or other municipalities with facilities like this city cannot handle detainee trials. Or that supermax prisons can’t handle detainee transfers from Gitmo.
But in the end something else is at issue. Indefinite detention is un-American and anti-constitutional. Anyone suggesting that as an option should understand what they’re actually suggesting. Bush-Cheney may have gotten us into this mess by establishing Gitmo, but it will be Obama’s embarrassment if he can’t figure out a way to solve it.
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