I suppose I’m just naive. With nearly every state clamoring about a loss of jobs why aren’t more states raising their hands and saying, “Yes, we’d like those detainees in my state. Give us the money to build the prison and we’ll house them forever.” Actually, Colorado is asking for them.
If I’m Jennifer Granholm, I’d lobby to build a new Supermax prison in Saginaw or Flint. A billion for my state as well as $200 million per year to look after them? Sign me up!
It’s silly to make the inference that somehow these detainees will be allowed into general population. Just like its silly to assume that the country is somehow more safe because they are in Cuba vs. them being in the United States. It’s a prison. It’s not like they are going to walk out and get jobs! There aren’t any jobs to be had!
Of course, there are real reasons to keep them off of U.S. soil. If they are brought to the United States it implies that they are legally detained. I think there is an open debate as to whether the United States can legally detain people indefinitely.
Should Guantanamo be closed? It’s become a symbol of how the Bush administration handled the war on terror. For that reason Obama wants it gone. He wants to fight terrorism in a different way. ItClosing it doesn’t really solve the problem… but Obama is now caught in a catch-22. He now has the information he didn’t have when he made the campaign promise to close it. But now if he doesn’t close it he has to admit that Bush was right to have it there in the first place.