LOl....we
have to teach Obama's team before he takes office. What? Did he pick an unqualified cabinet to go along with his unqualified abilities?

Sounds like fun.

chattyway

So you don't think that our leaders should normally have drills on how to protect us?

Wait a minute.......I thought Obama and his team were the most qualified for the job?? Why do they need so much hand holding from a "failed administration"??? I thought we were going to see "change"??
SUCKERS!

Ken

Both Administrations, as well as most of us, think that our national security is more important than partisan bickering. You apparently do not.

Trevor - All of the Americans I know want Gitmo closed. The entire world wants Gitmo closed. It has become a symbol of our national embarrassment. A sign that maybe America is not so exceptional after all. Since the Muslim extremists already believed that, I doubt they care either way.

When you start a new job, do you get handed the keys to the office and the boss says "here ya go!" with no orientation? Whats the problem with new people learning from the experience and mistakes of the previous administration?

@ Trevor - Which Americans want Gitmo open? The 25%ers that still nuzzle Bush's lower appendage? The rest of us have figured out that they stocked the place mostly with dirt farmers, hand picked by other dirt farmers who got paid by US to "show 'em the terrorists". If these people are the "worst of the worst" as Rumsfeld, et.al have proposed on numerous occasions, why can't they get ONE conviction? Why have they let so many of the worst of the worst go without even an indictment? How does Gitmo conform to international treaties, i.e. THE RULE OF LAW? How does Gitmo enhance our moral standing in the world, which we claim to hold, and hold over other countries when it suits our need? Close Bush's torture fantasy porn house! Tell the world what these people did wrong and punish them, or let them go. It's that simple.

appauled - And why should we care what Rupert Murdoch thinks?

Wow. What a bunch of sore losers. Do you guys read your own comments? You'd think the election was still on. In case you hadn't noticed, you lost the election, which means you are in the minority. The rest of us hope you will cease this non-productive whining and come join us do our best to rebuild this nation. BTW, I'm very glad the surge worked. It's one of the only strategies that did. Bush deserves credit where credit is due. But his 8 years are up, and there is still no way I would ever have voted for Palin/McCain. If you want to have any hope of success in 4 years you better find a better pair of candidates than those two...

After Obama guts the intelligence community and prevents us from detecting future attacks, he will need this practice. If this happens on Obama's watch, he will be impeached for stupidity.

Let's just give the new administration a chance. Besides, it is the "United" States future that is at stake.

applauded: ready for another shock? al-Quaida in Iraq did not even exist until AFTER we invaded Iraq. It was formed there as a response to our attacks. So we attacked a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, that had no weapons of mass destruction, and no al qaeda presence. We created the situation for al-Quaida in Iraq to form, and now we've supposedly gotten rid of the last remnants of the group that we allowed to form by our own irresponsible actions. Doesn't seem like much to brag about.

Wonder if the outgoing team will instruct the incoming team about such things as torture, rendition and illegal wiretaps on American citizens?

The point about Gitmo is that we do not know how many of the detainees are criminals. They have never been charged nor tried.

Then send them back to their countries. Do not give them asylum in USA like Obama wants to give them unless you want them living next door to you.

How about those Muslim Americans who got booted off the AirTran flight recently? American citizens, born here, not naturalized. That was pure profiling and is reminiscent of our incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII, a shameful part of our history.

"asylum in the USA"

No one is talking about that.

Simon

I think he can walk and chew gum at the same time. But the closing of Gitmo is as much a symbolic act as anything else. A sign to the world that America is ready to act like America again. I can't think of anything much more important than that.

Well stated, Jock. We are a nation of laws and respect for human rights and due process, something seemingly forgotten over the last eight years.