All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

Few things in American history will be remembered with as much contempt and embarrassment as Guantanamo Bay.

The Washington Post reported over a week ago that 82 inmates at Guantanamo Bay have been cleared of charges but are still being held in prison.

The problem is multifaceted. Even though the men have been cleared of charges, in many cases their own countries do not want them back.

Another problem stems from the fact that the United States cannot legally send detainees to countries where they may be tortured, which is about every country in the middle east when you think about it.

Add in the fact that the US and Europe will not allow the men to roam their countries and now you have nation-less men, forced to be imprisoned because no one will allow them on their soil.

I can certainly see why countries would be hesitant to take these men back. Just because they were cleared doesn't necessarily mean they are innocent, BUT just because they were detained does not necessarily make them guilty either.

But we certainly cannot just leave these people behind bars to rot, there has to be a solution to this problem that is both humane and logical.

82 guys doesn't seem like an awful lot of people to keep tabs on, especially when they are already employing vast dragnets on tens of millions of innocent Americans.

So if there is some kind of concern that these men were cleared but may still pose a threat what is preventing the law from releasing them and then obtaining a warrant (which would be simple considering these men were just leaving Guantanamo) and monitoring their movement?

I'd say let's put them all on an island somewhere, but that doesn't seem like a very logical or humane solution. Something has to be done with them and leaving them in prison is not the solution.

These are people, not animals. They can't be held in cages or euthanized just because you can't find a home for them, your going to have to find a home for them somehow- these are just some of the ramifications that should have been considered before the prison of torture was even dreamed of to begin with.