The Closing of Gitmo

Even though the official closing of Gitmo won't take place before a year, the waves that have been created by this Executive Decision alone will certainly cease the cracking and peeling of the US's image around the world. For too long Gitmo acted as the beacon of US's misuse of power and perpetuation of torture on civilians in their quest to extract information on terrorists. Whether the captured civilians were guilty or not or linked to terrorists organizations or not weren't considered, instead Gitmo and other torture camps set up by the US on foreign lands served similar to KGB prisons, where individuals were treated to the newest modes of torture in order to compel them to give in. The stories voiced by ex-detainees at Gitmo, who were released on grounds that they had no links to terrorists cells and thereby innocent (one wonders what credible information was used to pick them up in the first place!) carry activities that surely violates human rights laws. On those accounts alone and on the countless lawsuits filed against the US government by those ex-detainees, keeping Gitmo operational is simply a slap in the face to diplomacy and compromise across the globe. Therefore, President Obama's first decision has certainly arrived at a pivotal moment in history.