Reneging on Guantánamo

There's a large element within this Country that seems bound and determined to tear apart what this Country is suppose to stand for on the World stage as well as within. They also seem to want to stoke their fears by creating as much hatred towards us, thus enemies of, for a perpetual state of conflict outside of and within our borders. This is our legacy to the coming generations!

In January 2009, President Obama promised a clean break with Bush era detentions. Two years on, only continuity is visible

On the second day of his administration, in January 2009, Barack Obama caps his pen after signing an executive order closing the Guantánamo Bay prison, while vice-president Joe Biden and retired military officers applaud. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP

22 January 2011 - Today – the two-year anniversary of President Obama's announcement that he would close Guantánamo by January 2010 – is a day of sadness for those of us who follow Guantánamo. Two years ago, on a similarly frigid day, the newly inaugurated president issued three executive orders, making it crystal clear that he sought a change of direction in the "war on terror" on matters of detention, torture and Guantánamo. Yet, since that day, his intentions have faltered again and again, to the point where it is fair to say that the promise of closing Guantánamo has been decidedly, and perhaps, irrevocably broken.

In 2009, as this was the first public statement of Obama's presidency, it appeared that he was decidedly determined, as a matter of highest priority, to bring closure to Guantánamo, and to the policies it stood for. In retrospect, one can only wonder whether the president acknowledges his failure to make good on the promise. Or whether he would merely insist defensively that a combination of politics and unforeseen complexities stymied his good intentions. {continued}