Taking a Stand

Good to see President Obama is taking a stand on closing the detention center. Apart from his insistence that maximum security prisons are equipped to handle detainees, he's leaning in the direction of handling so-called terrorists as criminals, and dealing with it as a criminal rather than national security issue.

What does this mean in the long run? Well, think due process, think habeas corpus, think Eighth Amendment, and remember, thankfully, Mr. Obama's background in constitutional law.

This is an excellent step. Obama is right to suggest that Gitmo, and the kangaroo court system, is a mess. The first step is changing the way in which we view acts of terror to conform with the criminal justice system as, first and foremost, the heinous attacks on the World Trade Center were criminal acts that require criminal prosecution.

One can tear down a prison, but unless the mindset that created it changes, it will only return with a vengeance.