Obama v Cheney
lived up to expectations I thought.
Both addressed real issues and both have real passion for their positions - if Dick Cheney seriously believes that thousands of people might die as a result of the new administration's mistakes then he has an absolute duty to speak out, not just a right.
Mr Obama took the high road again - calling on Americans to avoid a soundbite-dominated debate, think about the problem and come up with rational solutions. That is Obama.
His point about the Supermax prisons - nobody has ever escaped from one so what is the problem using them for Guantanamo detainees - will need to be answered by those, including the FBI Director, who have talked of vague "dangers" that lurk.
On the wider claim - that Guantanamo has created more terrorists than it ever housed - I think the president has a more difficult case to make. As Mr Cheney pointed out, the 19 9/11 hijackers acted in a pre-Guantanamo world. But there was no shortage of grievances real, or (as he would have it) imagined.
In researching , I came across plenty of US haters who would mention Guantanamo in a list of bellyaches. But only in a list - and the list, sans Guantanamo, is still long.
It will be fascinating to see who wins this tussle: will any Guantanamo prisoners not subject to trial be kept in the US for the rest of their lives? I wonder what local communities where all manner of folks have been sent to serve their sentences would make of this? Including some ( and among them) who have been tried and convicted and will never be heard from again.
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