Guantánamo Closure?

Reports are leaking tonight (UK time) that President-Elect Obama is ready to give the order to end the detention of terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay in his first week of office. This is of course a campaign pledge, and will be well received world wide.

I would personally like to see these captives put to a fair trial in the US. This is of course dependant on available evidence, and an acceptable process being in place. Where no evidence is available then these detainees must be released. We will likely see a scenario whereby a group of individuals currently classed as dangerous by the US government will be released back to their home countries within weeks.

The tragedy of this whole situation is that The US has detained people without due process, which has been an awful example to set. There are rogue nations in this world it is right that the world community looks at these nations and signals its concerns. Those messages have been blunted by a lack of vision and convictions on behalf of the outgoing administration in the US.

If Western Society wants to hold up our society and ways to the developing and oppressed to act as a beacon of hope, we must ensure that those ideals are untainted; for the message is seen not as one of hope, but one of hypocrisy.