A few days after he was sworn into office, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order to close Gitmo in one year. The egotistical young man had this notion that it was an easy task and that it could be done within a year despite the fact that George Bush had tried for years to move the detainees out of the place. It was evident that Bush had trouble because the task is difficult.
Nonetheless, Obama the brazen decided to make good on a campaign promise and sign the EO to shutter the place. Now there is nothing wrong with trying to shut it down but it is obvious that he overestimated his ability when he put a timeline on the act.
Gitmo will NOT be shut down by Obama’s self imposed deadline. Obama, in a rare interview with Fox News, said he was not disappointed that his deadline had slipped and that he knew it was going to be hard. Keep in mind that Obama’s EO says that the facility will be closed in one year and contains disposition instructions for anyone remaining there at the end of that year.
The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. [emphasis mine]
So he knew it was going to be hard? Right, if he knew it would be hard he not have given himself a year to do it and he would not have pigeonholed himself with those specific disposition instructions. He is a calculating politician and he does not like to do things that cast him in a bad light. His problem is that he has such an elevated opinion of his ability that he is unable to accurately predict what will happen and when.
It seems as if he is finding out the hard way that it is real easy to claim that one will change the way things are done in DC but that doing it is actually not that easy. He anticipated that his charm would be able to get things done.
He is finding out that it is not as easy as he made it sound. If he had paid attention to Bush rather than bashing him for what was taking place he might have figured out that the task was difficult.
If he had then maybe he would not be admitting failure in his ability to carry out what he says he will do.
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