DC Trawler

Closing Gitmo? When did anybody ever want to close Gitmo?

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President Barack Obama, 1/22/09:

Fun fact: Gitmo was not closed a year later, as promised. It was not closed two years later. It has not been closed three years later.

You cool with that? WaPo thinks you’re cool with that:

The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that Obama, who campaigned on a pledge to close the brig in Cuba and to change national security policies he criticized as inconsistent with U.S. law and values, has little to fear politically for failing to live up to all of those promises…

The survey shows that 70 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s decision to keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Huh. Well, that’s weird. Back when The Evil George Bush was president, all you ever heard about was how bad Gitmo was. It was the international symbol of American imperialism and thuggery and whatnot. Obama thought Gitmo was so important, he’d barely moved into his new home when he made a big show of promising to close it.

Now, not only has he completely failed to do so, but everybody’s like, “Ehhhh, big deal. Whatever the president thinks is best. As long as he’s not the bad president!” If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Obama and his supporters never really cared about Gitmo at all. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were just using it as a political football.

Good thing I know better!

America does not want to close Guantanamo. We’ve never wanted to close Guantanamo. Remembering otherwise is doubleplus ungood.

(Hat tip: Newsbusters)