So President Obama has taken care of one of the items on the left’s wish list – closing Gitmo. Congratulations to them. I suppose it never occurred to anyone to question whether what we were told about the general care and treatment of the detainees there was accurate. Instead we are content to assume that a few obvious cases of mistreatment there are representative of the whole operation at Gitmo. I don’t intend to minimize any abuses that may have occurred, but I tend to find our military more trustworthy than alleged terrorists. No way any of these detainees would have exaggerated or lied about their treatment . After all, these are simply misunderstood young Muslim men who were just minding their own business when they were snatched away from their families for no good reason whatsoever. Right. The majority of Gitmo inmates are there for a good reason. Also, I don’t know many other prisons that have made so many accommodations for their prisoners’ religious faith. Many of them have special dietary-approved food, prayer rugs, and their own Korans. They even have scheduled prayer times. How many countries would show American captives such consideration? Answer: None.
There is some question about how many former Gitmo prisoners have returned to the jihad after their release. The number is immaterial. I’m not saying this to defend those who may be exaggerating the numbers here. How many terrorists (or alleged terrorists, if you prefer that term) does it take to carry out terrorist attacks? Not very many. So whether it’s 5%, 10%, or some other percentage, these are folks that I wouldn’t trust to stay on the straight and narrow after their release — and I certainly wouldn’t want former Gitmo inmates in my neighborhood (unless it was clear that they were never part of the jihad).
I question President Obama on this, because I don’t think he has thought this whole decision through. What are the chances Europe will agree to take these former Gitmo detainees? Even with President’s Obama’s awesomeness and great charisma, they will still say no to him on this. I just can’t understand why they wouldn’t want all these pure and innocent Muslim folks in their countries. Maybe they see something that the left in this country refuses to see. Where will these detainees go? This is an important question, and one Obama should have considered before pulling the trigger on this executive order. He will need more than a year to figure out what to do with them.
One thing I know — the president’s sky-high approval numbers will come to earth in a hurry if he re-settles the former Gitmo detainees in this country. It’s great that the president has so much faith in the virtue of these gentlemen, but I don’t trust them, and I bet that my fellow Americans would agree with me. It’s a chance we shouldn’t have to take. One 9/11 was one too many.