On Friday, President Obama signed yet another annual defense bill which explicitly forbids closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, leaving a pledge to close the site, made on his first day in office, unresolved.
Despite this, President Obama insisted that he will “do everything I can” to close the site, which apparently did not include not signing anything that bans closing the site.
Obama did accompany the signing with a statement insisting that anything he views as violation of his constitutional powers, which includes the Gitmo provision, would be ignored.
Yet the president has made statements to that effect with previous bills that also forbade closing the site, and has so far not actually made a serious effort to close the facility, and indeed has at times blamed Congress for not having done so.
So what is really keeping him from closing it?
The answer is: The bill he just signed into law, stating that it cannot be closed, is now keeping him from closing it. We can´t expect the President to disobey the law, can we? Obama´s bosses do not want it closed – the Guantanamo gulag sends a signal to the world that the US does whatever it pleases, whenever it pleases and it doesn´t matter what anyone thinks.
I auppoae his suffering from a common social sickness labeled "pragmatism" Same found already with Mussolini and Hitler.! Thar is the American "exceptionalism"!
Signs a bill banning the closure of Gitmo but says he will ignore it…I'll admit I'm scratching my head.
Keep scratching until he closes it at least. And don't worry for a minute because if he closes it then this will be the reason the Republicans will use to condemn him for doing it.
And Montaigne, do you think that Hitler and Mussolini had policies forced upon them too?
Whatever happened to line-item vetos?
Everything is clear. We are witnessing, again, Obama speaking out of both sides of his mouth.