Senate Blocks Obama’s Plan to Close GITMO

  Today the senate officially killed the president’s plan to close GITMO. The main sticking point is the fact that the president didn’t have a plan on what to do after GITMO was closed. The easy part is saying that you are going to close GITMO, the hard part is actually closing GITMO. Words are more easily spokenthan actions are actually put in place. Eventually the president will have to come up with a plan if he really wants to close GITMO. I am not so sure that he really wants to close GITMO as much as he wants it to appear that he wants to close GITMO.

  The senate also passed an amendment that would ban any taxpayer money being used to relocate the terrorists being held at GITMO on United States soil. This could be what actually kills the notion that GITMO will be closed any time in the near future.

  The senate will vote to fund the closing of GITMO if the president ever comes up with a viable plan for closing the detention center, but if that plan includes relocating the terrorists on United States soil the funding will be dead on arrival. With no other country willing to take these killers the only option may be to relocate them on United States soil and if the senate holds firm that will not be an option.

  I have always held the belief that GITMO would not be closed and today’s action goes a long way to prove my theory. In the end the president will be able to save face by saying that he tried everything in his power to close GITMO but it just didn’t work out. He will be able to say that the Bush administration screwed this up so bad that he has no choice but to continue the Bush administration’s policies until a viable option can be worked out.

  This scenario will please both sides of the debate; the left will be able to continue to blame Bush for GITMO remaining open, and the right will be happy that these terrorists will be kept right where they belong.