Opinion: In Wednesday’s Letters to the editor
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In Wednesday’s Letters to the editor, readers, while mostly happy about the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, worry about the consequences of a shutdown.
Writes David Stoughton, of Santa Monica:
President Obama’s move to claim what he calls ‘the moral high ground’ in the war on terrorism raises the question: How does this make America safer? After the events of 9/11, there isn’t much high ground of any kind, moral or otherwise. Obama’s righteous sense of fair play might get him a warm round of applause at the next ACLU luncheon. However, this is not a boxing match. We cannot expect to win a contest in which we unilaterally agree to fight fairly against an opponent who claws, scratches, gouges and hits below the belt. This is war, and all is not fair. I don’t want to see America lose a city someday and hear a president tell us we can hold our heads high because we adhered to the highest moral principles and, to our peril, played by the rules in a world in which there are none.
Geneve Mantri, a Washington-based official at Amnesty International USA, has a different concern:
While people everywhere are celebrating Obama’s promises to close Guantanamo and end torture, The Times is right to highlight the questions his executive orders leave unanswered. As to where to send detainees who are judged safe for release, part of the answer lies across the Atlantic. But if the United States wants a favor in cleaning up its own mess, it must ask nicely. That means resettling some detainees on U.S. soil.
The United States will need the help of European governments to keep its promise while ensuring no freed detainee is at risk of torture. Otherwise, the demise of Guantanamo will be as dirty as its creation.
But David A. Kaufman, of Chatsworth, doesn’t see what all the fuss is about:
With President Obama’s executive order directing the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, many folks are wringing their hands over what to do with those prisoners refused return by their native countries. I don’t know why we are forced to reinvent the wheel every time we enter a war, including the ‘global war on terrorism.’ Live up to the Geneva Convention, declare these and all future captives POWs, and build POW camps just like what was done in the United States during World War II.
A few readers also fret over what they see as a different kind of prison: the elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. Writes Mikko Alanne, of Los Angeles:
Alice Walker once wrote: ‘The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans.’ The debate about what kind of enclosure Billy should live in evades the disquieting question of why he should be forced to live in an enclosure at all. I’m sure Billy’s caregivers have great affection for him and only want what’s best. That does not change the reality that Billy is their captive. The new cage may come gilded with words like ‘Pachyderm Forest,’ but it’s still a cage.
*Photo: 2002 image of prisoners at Guantanamo by AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Shane T.McCoy.