Happy Birthday, Guantánamo! Eight Years Old, and Still Growing

Ah, January 11. Famous for being the day that Romania annexed Transylvania, that milk was first delivered in bottles, that Los Angeles received its first recorded snowfall, and that 20 U.S. detainees arrived at Guantánamo Bay's Camp X-Ray, the first batch of prisoners in what was then a newly-launched War on Terror. Those pictures of detainees in orange jumpsuits behind barbed wire? They all started today, eight years ago.

Talk about a rough childhood. First came allegations of detainee abuse, then allegations that health professionals were involved in torture, then allegations that detainees were committing suicide. Things got so bad for Guantánamo that on its seventh birthday, President Obama made an historic announcement that he would be sending the prison into the history books, along with Clear Pepsi and Ben & Jerry's Cantaloupe ice cream. Ideas that someone at some point thought were good, but alas, ended up just making the world feel kind of gross.

Of course, one year after Obama's pledge to close Guantánamo, the prison is alive and well. And with the controversy stoked by a man who tried to blow up a plane with underwear firecrackers, it doesn't look like the prison is going anywhere in the immediate future. And that's bad news. After years of creating moral and legal problems the likes of which have sullied the reputation of the U.S. 'round the globe, Guantánamo should have never seen an eighth birthday. Now the question becomes, will it see a ninth?

As David Leslie with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture writes, the reputation of Guantánamo puts a stain on America. The only thing to get rid of that stain? Following through on promises to shut the place down.

"Guantanamo is known around the world not only for its seemingly endless detentions without trial but also as a place where the United States lost its way and engaged in torture," Leslie writes. "Eight years of a horrendous symbol of torture is eight years too many."

Agreed. Now here's hoping it won't be until Los Angeles gets its next snow storm that we actually see GITMO gone.

Photo credit: takomabibelot