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June 14, 2005
Should we Close Camp Delta?
You don't have to go very far in the news to come up with a story about Camp Delta, the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Several prominent senators have called for the prison camp to be closed. Many in the Muslim world are all atwitter. Vice-President Cheney has launched a staunch defense. It has achieved the status of "embattled" in the media. We are told that the camp has become a public relations liability, and that the best solution is to close it down.
The arguments in favor of closing are not totally without merit. The camp has become something of a lightening rod for those who oppose our efforts. "Human Rights" groups (given the behavior of some of them recently, quotation marks are required) focus on it, and the media dutifully report their findings. Closing the base, it is argued, would deprive those who oppose us of a propaganda tool.
A quick google search revealed articles in which Jimmy Carter, Tom Friedman, Joe Biden, and others have called for the closure of the base.
What is interesting is that in not one of the stories is an alternative proposed. This is either bad reporting or poor thinking on the part of those who want the prison closed. I'm inclined to think the latter. They appear to be talking first, thinking later.
Here are my reasons why we should keep Camp Delta open for business:
Since none of the people who want the base closed that I read about saw fit to offer alternatives, I'll go through them.
Move it to the continental United States. I can see the left salivating over this possibility. They would all converge on the base, set up camp outside, wave their protest signs for the media (who would dutifully cover them), and all sing kum-bay-ah. The place would become a magnet for every leftie group with a gripe, which is to say, all of them. We'd even have the "free Mumia" people there before long.
In addition, this would give the left a greater opportunity to use their favorite weapon; the lawsuit. I'm no lawyer, but you don't have to be one to see that a base in the U.S. proper would give a laywer more tools to work with.
Move it to a foreign country. Yeah. Know any that would be willing to take the political heat? I don't either.
Move it to Iraq. This would certainly keep the media and human rights types away, but I doubt that the Iraqis would like this. It would give the insurgency a propaganda tool and we don't need this. So this option is out also.
Disband it entirely and disperse the prisoners. I don't see how this solves anything. It would make it harder on our interrogators. The world would figure out where we'd sent them, and we'd have the same problems as in the first two options presented above.
Propaganda and Storms
Those who oppose our efforts will find something to complain about no matter what we do. If not Guantanamo Bay, then it will be something else.
Further, if we close the base now our opponents will simply smell blood and will go after bigger fish. They will not be satisfied. They will redouble their efforts on other fronts, mostly to try and get "fair trials" for the illegal combatants we are keeping prisoner. A few posts ago I went through how the prisoners should not and must not be treated as criminals, but as prisoners-of-war (albeit illegal ones).
Lastly, as I indicated above, I'm not sure that closing the base will put the issue to rest. Consider Abu Ghraib; this is still used by those who oppose us, even though the United States dealt firmly and swiftly with the abuses there. This CBS story about Guantanamo saw fit to mention Abu Ghraib in it's opening paragraph, for example. I suppose one could make the argument that keeping Guantanamo Bay open will also keep Abu Ghraib in the news, but my guess is that they'll be there anyway. They will never forgive us for Aby Ghraib, why should they forgive us for Guantanamo Bay? We may as well accept that the issue will always be with us, and fight back as best we can.
It is at good to see the Vice-President defend the camp to staunchly. Those of us who agree with him should help him as best we can.
Posted by Tom at June 14, 2005 7:59 AM
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