The U.S. should not close down the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camps

On the Pro Side's first point, that closing the camp would be wasteful, I would argue that money spent on the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center was wasted from the start. This center has done a job which could have been done by an existing US prison, as I will show, while simultaneously failing to make America any safer. Rather, it has made America less safe. The image of Guantanamo Bay is powerful propaganda for America's enemies, and it undermines our moral standing in the world. Continuing to operate Guantanamo Bay as a detention center would be throwing good money after bad simply because we are not willing to admit our own failings. The more important contention of my opponent is that there is not a suitable alternative. However, I would argue that the US has already at least 44 suitable facilities for housing such high importance prisoners: the US state and federal facilities rated as "Supermaximum security. " In fact these facilities already house convicted terrorists Zacarias Moussaoui, Theodore Kaczynski, Terry Nichols, and Richard Reid. [1] These facilities have the best possible in security measures and offer as close to zero chance of escape as is possible. Even if a terror suspect escaped from one of these prisons, I would feel safer with them having to deal with the hostile environment of the United States, where they will be constantly hunted and find no respite, rather than to have them in a nation which is our declared enemy, namely Cuba. The remaining opposition is that the states simply do not want to accept these new inmates. However, this is irrational given the facts that: a) escape is so very unlikely, and b) some of the most deplorable criminals imaginable are already being held. Federal Supermax prisons exist for this very reason, to house the worst of the worst, and it is the Federal Government's prerogative to hold these men in the existing Federal Prisons. My opponent did raise the very real threat of home-grown terrorism, but his fears are overblown in this case. Firstly, most of the detainees will only have a marginal understanding of English and so would have difficulty recruiting other inmates. Secondly, these inmates would face risk of persecution at the hands of the prominent white supremacist groups that exist within the prison system. Given this threat, as well as the threat they themselves pose, it would be entirely reasonable to segregate these inmates still further from the general population. And so I come to the reason why this Detention Center must be closed, and this pertains to my opponent's final point. The international backlash against the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center began almost immediately, with even our closest allies speaking against it. [2] The image of a military prison, placed in a deliberately obscure legal realm was instantly recognizable and undeniable. The Government still further muddled the legal waters by declaring the prisoners a new class of prisoner, not civilian and not POW, but rather detainees. Regardless of what this obfuscation was meant to achieve, it had the result of fueling anti-American suspicions and sentiment. This is only intensified now that the extent of our enhanced interrogation has become public knowledge. To say that Guantanamo Bay could once more become a normal facility is to deny the powerful symbolism it holds in the eyes of our opponents. While it may indeed be possible to rejuvenate our image without closing it down, it would require a herculean effort to overcome the uphill battle of entrenched public opinion. People's assumptions about this camp have been formed and they are decidedly negative. Closing the camp allows the United States to admit error and move on. In this moment of a new administration, it is possible for us to say that the use of this camp was in poor judgment, and that the new administration is committed to addressing such mistakes. Retaking the moral high ground is simply a matter of accepting our own fault, and using that as a new metric by which to mark improvement. The basis of this conflict we find ourselves in is fundamentally a moral one: terrorists and their backers are morally reprehensible. To risk losing the moral high ground by refusing to end this failed system is to risk losing any justification for our cause. 1. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 2. . http://en.wikipedia.org...