gitmo 'er done

so i guess you've heard - obama said he'd close the detention center at guantanamo bay but he did not say what he'd do with all the residents thereof. now all our representatives are fighting to keep these dangerous prisoners out of our states. everyone's saying «i don't want dangerous prisoners in my backyard.»

okay, firstly, no one is going to put a d-p in your backyard unless you live in a prison compound. but, i know what you mean - you don't want these d-ps nearby. that's a reasonable-sounding desire, but the problem with the concept is that you already have d-ps nearby. «omg!» - you say - «no way!» um... who do you think occupies the city jail or the county pen or the federal prison? let's just say not all prisoners are martha stewarts. «well!» - you say - «they are not near me!» right. okay - here's a quiz: where's the nearest jail, peniteniary, or prison? you don't know, do you? the authorities do attempt to sort of keep this on the down-low. these are not bed&breakfasts, after all.

so - everyone's squawking about not wanting d-ps in their backyards, and it's all well & good, but if not in existing prisons [i.e., your backyard] - then where? «build a new, highly secure facility» - you say. really? you want to spend millions to build a new, highly secure facility to replace a perfectly good, existing, highly secure facility? there is no circumstance in which this qualifies as a good use of govt [i.e., you & me] money. no circumstance justifies spending vast sums replacing something that works with something that might or might not work.

the bottom line with gitmo is the name is tainted b/c some or all the prisoners were tortured. as far as i know, torture is no longer being used at gitmo. so - the worst is over. we americans are no longer committing human rights violations at guantanamo bay. right? right. so -- there is no longer a reason to shut down operations at gitmo. keep the facility. keep the detainees there.

we get so used to hearing «guantanamo bay» as if it were a disconnected bit of land somewhere. do you know where it is? it's in cuba - on a u-s military base in cuba. interesting all these strained relations with cuba, yet we have an active, secure base there, and we use it to house d-ps. makes you think maybe world relations are a wee bit more complex than the surface coverage you & i get from the media, doesn't it?