On an episode of Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace, Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey made a surprising statement in saying:
“I’ve been in the group that believes it’s in our national interest to close Guantanamo.”
He then went further saying:
?It does create a psychological scar on our national values. Whether it should or not, it does.?
This was said on the 13th anniversary of the opening of ?Guantanamo Bay US military prison, located on the?Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The prison is often called GTMO and pronounced as gitmo. Since the prison’s opening in 2002 it has received much criticism from human rights groups and other agencies worldwide.
While President Obama said he intended to close the prison, it still holds 127 prisoners. 59 were approved for?transfers to other facilities. In spite of this, Republicans in Congress are fighting to have future transfers suspended because of concerns regarding ISIS. They also said they would block attempts to lift a ban on transferring GTMO detainees.
Furthermore,? Cliff Sloan, the State Department’s former special envoy responsible for negotiating prisoner transfers, shares Gen. Dempsey’s sentiment. He expects the prison to be closed by the end of President Obama’s final term. Sloan elaborated his point further when he said, “nobody should underestimate President Obama’s determination and commitment” in regards to closing the prison on an episode of Meet The Press hosted By Chuck Todd. Sloan also wrote an editorial last week for The New York Times. In the piece, he acknowledged closing the prison would be an up hill battle by writing that closing the facility “will take intense and sustained action”. He then went on to urge government officials to “accelerate the transfers of those approved for release.”
Lastly, as Republicans are whining about closing this facility and playing politics its nice to know that Gen Dempsey is demonstrating the Army values of Integrity and Personal Courage by standing up for doing the right thing in by closing the prison. It has been used as a propaganda to embolden terrorists by our enemies and has cost the taxpayers way too much. I say we can’t close this place fast enough.
