Sen. Tim Kaine visits Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, and it wasn’t for the interior decorating

Call it justice, call it warranted in times of war, or call it one of the U.S.’s biggest embarrassments during the 21^st Century. No, I’m not referring to former president George W. Bush, I’m referring to the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba. It was here that Sen. Tim Kaine ‘toured’ on Friday, even though it remains unclear why anyone would need to take a tour of ‘Gitmo’.

That said, Kaine’s tour probably came in large part as a reaction to the hunger strikes that have been occurring at the facility over the past few weeks. According to one report, the number of detainees still carrying out their hunger strike is at 75 as of July 18, down from its peak of over 100 detainees. As part of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Kaine no doubt felt obliged to see one of the U.S.’s most negative international symbols with his own eyes.

While the Guantanamo Bay facility has been touted by its champions as a necessary evil to combat the ubiquitous forces of terrorism terroristing around the globe, it stands in stark contrast to the political rights that undergird the U.S. political system and U.S. identity.

The idea behind ‘Gitmo’ is that by detaining suspected terrorists outside of the contiguous boundaries of the U.S. and supposedly outside of U.S. jurisdiction, these individuals can be deprived of the normal legal protections offered by the U.S. justice system. Unfortunately, the U.S. has also been telling the world, and its own citizens, that it’s the beacon of hope, freedom, and due process of the law, even for so-called enemies of the state. Thus, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility has come to be seen by many throughout the 

world and the U.S. as the ultimate symbol of hypocrisy and the darker side of U.S. power.  

The justification for shutting Gitmo down is as simple as this: if America is to continue to lead in the international community for years to come, it must practice the principles that make this country so great, in the good times as well as the bad. For those who would argue that heighted risk begs for more extreme security measures like Gitmo, my response is that these measures will only increase the risk(s) originally posed. America is still the ‘good guy’, for now. But if and when this changes, no amount of military might will be able to sustain the façade of what was once perhaps humankinds greatest hope of freedom from political oppression.