10 Years In Gitmo

The September 11 attacks on America changed the rules of warfare for the United States. The nation craved revenge and the first taste was served in Afghanistan with the defeat of the Taliban. Hundreds of prisoners were transferred from the theater of war to the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These detainees were subjected to the incarceration without any rights to a trial or legal counsel. The Bush administration claimed that these inmates were the worst of the worst and the American public accepted this situation, despite its questionable benefit to the war effort. Torture, abuse, suicide, and murder at the prison shamed America all over the world. Even worse was happening in the CIA retention cells across the world. Both GW Bush and Barack Obama have attempted to close the prison. No one wants them stateside, so the last 171 detainees are stuck in limbo ten years after their capture. The cost per year for each prisoner is $800,000. Convicts in America run the State around $40,000 per year, but there are over two million of those. And the Gitmo prisoners would last in general population about a day. Like Philip Nolan in A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY, the Gitmo prisoners have nowhere to go. Certainly not until after the election.