Sure. Which means they'll help us deal with the soon-to-be-former inmates, right?
Not so fast:
Should it take in some former inmates, a move that may carry security risks as well as legal consequences? Or should Washington be left to clean up its own mess - a move unlikely to score points with the new Democratic administration?
“The Europeans have been nagging the United States to close Guantanamo for ages,” said London-based security analyst Bob Ayers. “Now the U.S. is actually thinking about doing it, these same Europeans that have been critical of the U.S. are now very reluctant to take those people into their own countries.”
You don't say? But it isn't all negative:
The reaction has not been uniformly negative. Switzerland, Ireland, Britain, Portugal and France have signaled various levels of interest in taking in former Guantanamo inmates.
But which ones and under what conditions is unclear.
I'm sure just as soon as they determine they don't have any of their citizens in Gitmo, they'll announce they will only accept their own nationals. Otherwise, they'll restrict their prisons to Gitmo detainees accused of littering or failing to sort recyclables, or something equally horrible like the Khandahar kitten orphanage caretakers swept up by our brutal trroops for no reason.
The article keeps a tone of the Europeans being unwilling to help undo a "mess" we created. That is really annoying. We fight the war largely without Europe's support. Oh sure, they cooperate with intelligence sharing, but few actually fight with us. We run a good prison that only has a bad reputation because Europe leads the charge by making unsubstantiated claims of abuse and torture and inmate innocence, and now that we will close the prison because of that pressure, it is "our" mess?
Is it any wonder so many Americans have a poor opinion of Europe rather than fawning over them like our liberal population?
The Global Left will protest our detention of enemy terrorists and suspects regardlesss of where we house them or under what conditions we detain them. The protests will not end. Just wait and see.
