Author's Posts

Back Where We Belong

James Downie — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:28:16 -0600

Change Through Councils

James Downie — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:45:26 -0600

Get Rid of Gitmo

James Downie — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:00:00 -0500

Last Thursday night, the Columbia Political Union held a debate between the College Democrats and the College Republicans on the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Most topics could have been endlessly debated between the two sides, with neither convincing the other. There was one topic, though, on which one of the Republicans split from her colleague, and the other struggled throughout his answer: the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. Guantánamo Bay, has been and will continue to be nothing less than the worst aspect of the war on terror, a prime example of the Bush administration's disregard for both international and domestic laws. Even the most apathetic people know the charges against Guantánamo: "suspects" held for years without reason, trials conducted without proper judicial protections-such as preventing the defendant's counsel from seeing "classified" evidence or even preventing the defendant from having counsel-and repeated allegations of torture that turn out true all too often. Furthermore, the facility violates both international and domestic law. Storing these detainees under the made-up term of "unlawful combatants," the Bush administration has violated the Geneva Convention, which, since all treaties ratified by the Senate are U.S. law, bans the facility. Yes, Americans understand the charges against the Guantánamo detention facility. That is why so many people and their representatives in Congress want the facility closed. Less than two weeks ago, even Robert Gates, the new Secretary of Defense, asked Congress to look for ways to close the base, saying to a House of Representatives committee that "my own view is that because of things that happened earlier at Guantánamo there is a taint about it." Yet President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and their allies steadfastly oppose the closing of this base, on the idea that tortuous interrogations are worth far more than any damage done to our image around the world. Many people remain sympathetic to this argument, and at first glance it appears to be a logical one: the information we can gain could possibly give us the chance to stop future terrorist attacks that could happen. After all, what good is our image next to dead American civilians? Clearly, the Bush administration never learned anything from the Cold War. To be fair to them, though, many Americans forget the Prague Spring of 1968, when Czechoslovakia tried to liberalize its communist state, only to be invaded by thousands of Warsaw Pact troops. The Soviets, of course, claimed the interests of security. The crackdown, however, irreversibly damaged the Soviet Bloc in the eyes of Western sympathizers, greatly retarding the growth of communist groups in the West. The lesson here is clear-a twist of Benjamin Franklin's famous words: those who give up their good name to preserve their power end up losing both. But there is a more important reason to close the base. One has to ask: why did the College Republicans have so much trouble defending Guantánamo? They know something more. It's more than that this facility is poorly run, misunderstood, and badly used. It's more than that it might cause some international problems or a public relations crisis. They know that the facility is just morally wrong. They know that this facility denies basic rights of representation and dignity. They know that it stands in stark contrast to life and liberty. They know that there really can be no defense of a facility that so blatantly contradicts everything we as Americans stand for. They know the facility is un-American. And in the end, that reason, that Guantánamo is not American, should be the only reason to close the facility. Ironically, Republicans often argue that we should only answer to our own country, not to the voters of others. Here the application of that idea is obvious: the base should be shut down, not because some other country or international group is against it, but because it stamps upon the most basic sentiments of America and the Constitution. Sadly, much of the damage to America's image was done when that first cell door clanged shut. But not all is lost; if Bush wants to try to save the shipwreck that is his foreign policy, his first step should be to follow the advice of his own defense secretary, use that executive power that he loves to accumulate, and close the facility. Otherwise Guantánamo will remain a hindrance in the war on terror, a symbol of hypocrisy, and, most importantly, a stain upon the good name of America. The author is a Columbia College first-year and a first-year representative of the Columbia University College Democrats.

Get Rid of Gitmo

James Downie — Sun, 08 Mar 1970 23:00:00 -0600