Obama Caves on Terror Trials at Gitmo

It was political reality, not common sense or bipartisanship, that forced Obama to change!

Obama to resume military trials for detainees at Guantánamo Bay
By Sam Youngman
March 7, 2011

President Obama on Monday ordered that military commission trials be resumed at Guantánamo Bay.

The move represents a defeat for Obama, who pledged to close the terrorist detention facility in Cuba within one year of taking office. The president had hoped to hold trials in federal court for many of the detainees, but ran into stiff opposition from both parties.

The decision will be a disappointment for liberals already upset with Obama’s political compromises. That faction received a second blow Monday when Defense Secretary Robert Gates told The Associated Press that troops could remain in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 date advocated by Obama.

The White House said Obama “remains committed” to closing the Guantánamo camp, but the president’s decision to direct Gates to rescind his suspension of new charges by military commissions signals it is unlikely prisoners will be successfully transferred anytime soon.

So basically, Bush did all the difficult work of setting up military commissions and had readied trials of top Al Queda figures like Khalid Sheihk Mohammed. Then, Obama put them on hold suggesting that something was wrong with Bush's policy. Now, like so many other Bush policies in the war on terror, Obama has reversed himself. This comes after two years of delay making the U.S. look even more the fool since Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, took office.