cods wrote on Jul 27
th, 2014 at 5:37pm:
its the same with the cacophony about closing Guantanamo Bay.. all that chest beating seemed to stop since Obama promised to close it down in 2008....yet its still open...
GITMO ON OBAMA'S WATCH:
Well over a decade has passed since the first prisoner arrived in Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history. Almost 800 men have passed through Guantánamo’s cells. Today, 155 men remain. Fashioned as an “island outside the law” where terrorism suspects could be detained without process and interrogated without restraint, Guantánamo has been a catastrophic failure on every front. It is long past time for this shameful episode in American history to be brought to a close.
but where are all those protesters done?
Interesting this one as it epitomises the bizarre relationship the US has with war and punishment since WW2.
Kennedy's Vietnam 'police action' became Johnson's war which, in its turn, became Nixon's war until Ford ended it, for which he is not (nor was) exactly eulogised.
Carter, who thought his fellow Americans wanted peace with the world, gave it to them, then suffered a soul-destroying backlash through which he had to endure the harshest contempt of many critics and former friends (who refused to speak to him).
Reagan was credited with ending the Soviet Union (which, in fact by the 80's, despite whoever would have been in the Whitehouse at the time, was destined for collapse).
Bush the first, despite his success with Gulf war 1, was criticised for 'not going all the way to Baghdad'.
Clinton's presidency, of course, was held hostage to that other American obsession, sexual intrigue.
Bush the second, who invaded Iraq based on lies and created 'Guantanamo', then 'Afghanistan' has not suffered nearly as much contempt in the US as he deserves. Certainly not nearly as much contempt as the 'peacenik' Carter faced with the Iranian hostage crisis.
And now it Obama's turn to be criticised for Guantanamo - it's now his prison - with not a single country or ally (including Australia), willing to accept the remaining prisoners.
We are yet to see how Republicans are going to refashion ISIS as an 'Obama failure'... But you can be sure they will try it.
The US is the only nation that muses publicly about bombing countries (a la Iran and Syria and - possibly - soon to be Russia) and many of its federal and state legislators are heavily criticising Obama for not joining in on this open musing.
So the question is, what should Obama do with Guantanamo and how should he do it?
Thank you for the nice summary of why America can do no right.
It goes in too hard - problem.
Goes in carefully - problem.
Goes in from the air only - problem.
Doesn't go in at all - problem.
Keeps out - problem.
Gives money - problem.
Gives weapons - problem.
Doesn't give anything - problem.
Like the Jews, America is the source of all problems for the Numpty Nation.
America exists - that's the unforgiven problem for most people who have never a good word for the single most significant force for good in the world.