In response to a question about what advice he’d give to his younger self on taking office, President Obama said he wishes he’d closed the Guantanamo Bay detention center on day one, and simply ordered the detainees moved elsewhere.
Obama announced his intention to close the facility within a year, a non-controversial position at the time. Within a few months, however, Congressional hawks started opposing the move. Obama admitted the “path of least resistance was to just keep it open.”
This admission is in stark contrast to what the White House has been saying all along, that the president had been working hard to close the facility and still intended to get it done.
Instead, Obama admits he simply decided he had other priorities and had more or less given up on the matter in pretty short order. The plan now, it seems, is to just keep the facility open forever to avoid any political arguments.
