An Old Soldiers View | Close GITMO Now!

Well here we are it’s been a year since president Obama signed the Executive Order to close the Terrorist Holding Facility on GITMO. I finally have come to the conclusion that it may in fact be a good idea. Now the problem that arose after President Obama signed the order was, “Well where do you put these guys?” The administration came up with a little used prison near Thomasville Illinois.. I and many others don’t think that’s necessarily a good idea. Even though it’s out in the country and relatively secure, from an insurgent point of view the fact that it’s approachable by land makes it a possible target for a deep penetration rescue mission staged say through Mexico or Canada.

Now lots of folks world wide have also said GITMO is a recruiting tool for Al Queada. Well I think that’s a load of hoooey and think that the more likely recruiting tool here is the idea “Hey look even if you get caught you’ll be able to chill at GITMO in tropic breezes and plenty of comfort. You’ll get three hots and a cot and regular showers and prayer times, even a new Koran courtesy of the US Taxpayer! Life will be good.”

After all we were attacked many times before GITMO and will be after we move it. The fact that we have an enemy POW camp for these guys should be a mute point. So instead of giving these folks a recruiting aid, lets go ahead and move it to a place that might well inspire a bit of fear instead.

I therefore propose we move GITMO to one of the two Islands indicated on the attached map. We could also establish the Federal Court, Attorney Gen Holder wants these guys tried in; right there on the island. No need to clog up New York, would well reduce costs as you’d already have snipers in the Towers. The assigned staff could easily add an igloo or two for defense attorneys as well. Wouldn’t need too serious a fence and in fact you could anchor a medium size boat say half a mile off shore and tell the detainees, any time you want to go just let us know and we’ll let you swim for it! In fact if we find these guys innocent, well hey we could just let them go! Give $50 and a new suit and shove ‘em out the gate. See ya!

Now to prevent rescue efforts it is easy to install the necessary radar to monitor the ocean around the island. Staffing would probably be about the same as GITMO is now but hey make it a short tour for the MP’s, we do after all have Military Installations in Alaska already so this would present no particular difficulty in fact I would bet that even given the hardships you’d have plenty of Abu Ghraib vets ready to volunteer for the duty.

No matter how you look at it, this is and idea that should be seriously considered on the merits stated above and it would in fact be a better use of our tax dollars than the one in Illinois. Might actually serve as a deterrent. Just an Old Soldiers Thoughts…