Two days into his role as president and Obama is shutting down Guantanamo Bay
. It’s to be shut down in a year and all interrogations are on a 120 day suspension so that more adequate gauging of the captive persons can be done.
Obama said a lot, but my favorite line is the following,
“He said his administration would not “continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals,” an express slap at policies pursued by former President George W. Bush…”
Beautiful. My biggest issue about all that has gone on, actually that’s a lie, but a big issue for me is the fact that they have taken civil liberties in the name of “safety” under the Bush administration. This would make our for fathers roll over in the grave. Which I’m sure they’ve done 10 fold.
I know terrorism is dangerous and after 9-11 I realize the damage that can be done by a few individuals.
However, there is a larger question at hand. Was it worth the 90-98,000 Iraqi Civilians dead? All of these people who had nothing to do with 9-11. We invaded a country that had no link to 9-11 and took out the government, replaced it, and then have allowed the murder ( “causalities of war” ) of 87-96,000 more than we lost?
Not to mentions the loss of more of our “own”. Or group. Our soldiers. The 4,227 of them that have died. That’s 4,227 families that will never see their son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister again. It’s not regrettable or a necessary sacrifice, it’s a tragedy.
“It is the ‘price to pay’, the ‘sacrifice’ that has to be made as we fight terrorism, the ‘cost’ of this war against evil forces. That is what we say to justify these killings. But those of us who speak of this price to be paid, this sacrifice to be made, do not pay this price, do not make this sacrifice. Our own country is not being destroyed, attacked, occupied. Our own children are not being blown up, our civilians are not becoming homeless by the millions. Those who speak of the necessity of this sacrifice, would they be prepared to pay such a price? In their own country? With the blood of their own families?” – Iraq Body Count
Obama’s actions are a step in the right direction. When we are finally back to the road of saying “We have these ideas” and not contradicting them through torture and the removal of our own rights, I think I can be a little happier with the US, however, the Iraq war and the death of the people there, the innocent people, feels like blood on my own hands. I wonder if that will ever wash away?
