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Con Air 2: Operation Gitmo Drop

By "Milbarge" and "Fitz-Hume"

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but doing so presents the complex question of where to put the 250 or so detainees. Unsurprisingly, politicians representing the possible destinations tend to say, "Yes, please close Gitmo, and no, please don't send them here."

Kansas's Fort Leavenworth prison is one likely target, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (a staunch Obama supporter) supports closing the facility. However, Sebelius opposes bringing the detainees to Kansas to break rocks.

Similarly, southern California officials are aghast at the idea of sending detainees to Camp Pendleton (story link via NRO).

Two thoughts about this: First, the California story has this hilarious quote from Congressman Duncan Hunter: "Any attempt to accommodate detainees at Camp Pendleton would create an unnecessary distraction for the Marine Corps and interfere with its primary mission, which is to combat terrorism." Got that? The Marines' job is to fight terrorism, and so we don't need these suspected terrorists around to ruin everything! One could come up with an extended response to this position, along the lines of how important it is for members of our armed forces to understand, observe, and deal with the fruits/consequences of their actions. But the analogy that really springs to mind is the old line about the dog chasing the car -- what would he do with it if he caught it?

And second, I have the obvious solution for where to place these Gitmo detainees. Yucca Mountain, Nevada!

Full post as published by Begging the Question on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).