Barack Obama signs a law which will keep GITMO open

  Earlier today Barack Obama signed the defense appropriations bill into law and in doing so virtually guaranteed that GITMO will remain open for the foreseeable future. While signing the bill Barack Obama stated that he did so begrudgingly because of the clause which prevents enemy combatants being held at GITMO from receiving trials in the United States, but that he did so because of the “military activities” in 2011.

  This brings up something that I find interesting because Barack Obama did more than just undermine his own Executive Order which was supposed to close GITMO–it highlights the fact that Barack Obama failed to deliver on another one of his major promises during his campaign for president. During the campaign Barack Obama–unable to come to any kind of firm timetable for troop reduction in the Middle East–made several claims as to when he would bring all of the troops home. His most aggressive timetable would have had all troops out of Iraq by the Spring of 2008–while he also claimed that he would bring all of the troops home anywhere from one year to eighteen months after becoming president.

  It is now almost two years into his presidency and his failure to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as promised is the one reason why he was also unable to deliver on his promise to close down GITMO. According to Barack Obama’s campaign promises there should not be any “military activities” in 2011 which would interfere with his plan to close GITMO, yet it was just announced that Barack Obama is going to send even more troops to Afghanistan–this will be the second troop surge of Barack Obama’s presidency.

  But that is what happens when you make reckless promises that there is no possibility of keeping. Many Americans knew that it was not possible for Barack Obama to withdraw the troops in a responsible manner without regard for the situation on the ground, but he sold this position to the anti-Bush, anti-war crowd and they bought into it; I have to wonder what they are feeling right now. Do they feel as if they were duped or do they just blame themselves for buying into the hype? 

  While I want to see these wars ended, I am glad that the president didn’t recklessly start pulling our troops out of there without regard for the consequences, but I do have to wonder: where are all of the anti-GITMO, anti-war protesters now that it is Barack Obama who is continuing so many of President Bush’s policies? The media will not defend these decisions, so instead they will just ignore them, and so will most of Barack Obama’s supporters.