Yesterday was a busy day at the office for Barack Obama. He officially made the most symbolic decision, in the eyes of the entire world, of his brand new presidency: within a year, the Guantanamo jail, this extraterritorial penitentiary that has for so long been America’s shame and dishonor, will be closed.
On the day before, he had adjourned the trials that were taking place or were about to take place in Guantanamo. Yesterday, he put the Convention of Geneva first, to the benefit of the presumed terrorists or whatever fighters are presently detained by the United States, and restored the military questioning procedures (Army Field Manual) that exclude torture.
Finally, in the afternoon, the President introduced the new approach to Hillary Clinton’s department. (She’s the new Secretary of State). He assigned George Mitchell as the special envoy to the Near East and Richard Hollbroke to Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is a non-equivocal signal whose goal is to re-center the American diplomacy since its losing way for eight years, especially with respect to Iraq.
His inaugural speech sounded very solemn; he used the expression “We, The People”, which means a lot to Americans. Obama promised that moral uprightness would from now on be the foundation and the leading light of the American leadership in the world. Those words were said in front of the senior officials of the Department of State (who can not really be compared to scatterbrained and hysterical groupies) and the president wasn’t applauded…he was given an ovation!
All in all, it is hard to imagine a clearer and more scathing repudiation of the overall foreign policy of the Bush administration during the past eight years.
Of course, nothing is ever that simple. As far as Guantanamo is concerned, Barack Obama must not refuse to face to reality. The truth is, people who are detained in this place are no angels.
Out of the people who have been released over the years, (the number of inmates has been reduced from 750 to 245), we are certain or virtually certain that 30 to 60 of them went back to armed struggle. Of those remaining, 60 are considered to be extremely dangerous. In some cases, a fair trial is impossible… because evidence is “sullied” by torture – either real or alleged – another great inheritance from the previous administration. In other cases, some countries whose nationals are detained in Guantanamo are not eager to take them back. Indeed, Ottawa confirmed once more yesterday that Canada will…do nothing in the Omar Khadr case.
Making nice humane declarations is all very easy when you don’t have to manage such a situation. However, the complexity of the situation is unbelievable for the one person who just arrived at the White House and is mandated to both protect the American population and restore its rights.
Barack Obama has many more busy days ahead at the office.
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