President Obama is being assaulted from both sides of the aisle regarding his
decision to close Guantanamo Bay without a detailed plan. One of the
President’s first executive orders was to order the closing of the terrorist
prison within one year. He promised to close the prison while he was on the
campaign trail, and has made steps to keep that promise. With a single
signature the President was able to satisfy voters who wanted the prison
closed, while also putting pressure on the democratically controlled Congress
to make it happen. With the current popularity of the President, democrats
in Congress will feel the heat for breaking ranks on this matter.

Congress sent a bipartisan message to the President by a vote of 90-6 to
refuse funding the closer of the prison. Democrat and Republican alike are
unsupportive of the closure if a detailed plan concerning the new location
for holding the prisoners is not presented. If the President is serious about
closing the prison, a detailed plan needs to be drafted and presented to
Congress. Obama will be hard pressed to find a suitable location that will
satisfy the American people. Holding the prisoners on the mainland is not
appealing to the populace at large. Our foreign partners have been very
reluctant to receive prisoners. Charismatic speeches delivered by the
President will hold off public and political criticism for a time, but not
for long. If Obama cannot draft an acceptable plan, expect more political
fallout between the Whitehouse and Congress.

Congress was correct in refusing to fund the closure of Guantanamo. It is
unwise and not in the best interest of the country to move forward on this
without a detailed and acceptable plan. Former President Bush made the same
mistake on invading Iraq. The invasion was carried out without a detailed
post-invasion plan. This political misstep has and will continue to plague
the Bush administration. The closer of Guantanamo does not compare to the
invasion of Iraq in multiple ways, but the same lesson applies to both. It
is important to the Obama administration to act quickly in addressing this
matter. The longer this continues the more impact GOP accusations will
have.

The whole situation might allude to the wisdom that former Vice President Cheney brought to the
war, in choosing Guantanamo as the location to hold enemy combatants. No
other locations seem to be acceptable. Guantanamo offers a location that is
not on the United States mainland, is controlled by the military, and a place
where inmates can be held indefinitely (just recently allowed by the Supreme
Court). By choosing the close the prison, the Obama administration has to
find a more suitable location, if there is one to be found.