Will the Last Terrorist to Leave Gitmo Please Turn Out the Lights?

by Endre Balogh

Last week, Congress soundly rejected (at least for now) President Obama’s ill-conceived idea to precipitously close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Although there is not a shred of real evidence to indicate that the facility at Gitmo is anything other than the best run and most high-tech facility available to house the vicious monsters incarcerated there, a lot of liberal Democrats feel that it should be closed – just because.  It’s amusing to read left-wing blog articles like this one at the Huffington Post, that report with all seriousness that Democrats are mystified about how it’s possible that a Democrat controlled Congress and Presidency can’t mange to gather enough votes to fund the closure of Gitmo.  Well, maybe it’s because closing Gitmo is just a really bad idea! 

Anyone who has read Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cucullu’s fascinating and meticulously documented book “Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind The Myths Of Guantanamo Bay” easily understands the merits of keeping Gitmo open.   In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Cucullu makes a compelling case for expanding Gitmo so as to house convicted terrorists like Jose Padilla and Zacharias Moussaoui, (currently in maximum security prisons here in the US) since they are privy to a vast trove of vital intelligence information, presently unavailable because convicts in American prisons cannot be interrogated.

Be that as it may, the lopsided Senate vote against President Obama’s request for $80 million to fund his wish-upon-a-star fantasy that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay simply vanish, gives me hope that in the end cooler heads than those at MoveOn.org will prevail in this debate. 

Of course, the problem now arises of where future funding will come from to keep Gitmo in operation while Democrats spin their wheels debating what to do with it.  If they refuse to allocate the necessary funds to keep it up and running, it seems they will have painted themselves into a rather embarrassing corner: no money to fund its operation, no money to close it down, and no place to put the terrorists. 

Certainly, in these troubled economic times, intelligent people should all agree that fiscal responsibility mandates some sort of well-thought-out financial husbandry.  In light of that, there seems to be only one alternative left to the Democrats hell-bent on closing Gitmo.  Once all the money runs out, the obvious thing will be to simply shut it down.  Lock all the gates, turn out the lights, pack up, and leave.  No muss.  No fuss.  Let the terrorists fend for themselves and in a few days or weeks, nature will take its course and solve the problem of what to do with them.  Awhile later, Nancy Pelosi can declare Gitmo a National Treasure (like Alcatraz) and, now that travel restrictions to Cuba are being relaxed, MoveOn.org can begin organizing “Bash Bush” tourist excursions.  In the end, it will result in millions of dollars saved and possibly even a net financial gain. 

I think this approach to Gitmo is what Vice President Biden must have been referring to in his commencement address at Wake Forest last week when he so astutely stated, “There’s not a single issue on this President’s plate that will not yield a change.  Just merely by ignoring it, it will change.”   Ignoring the detention center at Guantanamo Bay may be the only option left.  It is heartening that a coherent policy is finally beginning to emerge from this Administration


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Posted May 27th 2009 at 10:09 am in Politics | 58 Comments