Yes, We Can't

Guantánamo

Commentary

As radical as it was, like he promised and like the world wanted to believe, Obama just cannot break with the Guantánamo policy of his predecessor. Just after taking office, he suspended Bush’s trademark proceedings before the military commission. But now the public is getting prepared for the fact that there probably will not be any special tribunals after all.

Even someone like Obama cannot take a political risk that, for example, one of the Sept. 11, 2001 conspirators would have an easy time before a civil court because he would make a claim of illegal conditions of imprisonment or even torture. The government will get to work on modifying the one legal mechanism the president refused to deal with during the campaign.

If Obama still likes to distance himself from Bush frequently and go on and apologize for America’s mistakes to both friend and foe, he will have to use some of his political capital to pay for this change in position. European governments and the U.S. Congress may, in good conscience, reflect on this course of action, but that does not mean that they have to abandon a solidly united and principled solution to the problems these tribunals pose.