Super Eco

Photo credit: takomabibelot, flickr

On the first day of his presidency and with his first major executive action, Barack Obama interrupted his inaugural festivities to ask judges for a four-month suspension on the military trials being held at Guantanamo Bay. The following morning, a leaked White House draft executive order proposed that the facility close within a year. Though Obama's been an outspoken opponent of the facility since before his presidential campaign began, it still comes as a bit of a surprise that his first order of executive business would be to tell Gitmo to "get lost."

This action, overall, has been expected. Obama told a Texas crowd back in June 2007 that closing Guantanamo Bay and restoring habeas corpus would be a top priority in his administration, in the hopes that it would help America once again lead by example. It's possible, back then, that Obama thought the facility would close even before he reached office. At the time of his speech, the Bush Administration had also suggested that they might close Gitmo in the near future. It didn't happen then, and now Obama is showing that he intends to put his foot squarely on the gas. It's a bold liberal move for a president many were worried had moved closer to the center in previous months.

The military commissions at Guantanamo have been intensely scrutinized by the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations. The starkest criticism of the trials has been the admission of secret evidence and confessions from the detainees, possibly obtained through torture. Though Obama has said that the current procedures must end, it remains unclear where the detainees will be transported to and what they will be charged with, if anything.

The detention center had significantly cut down on their greenhouse gas emissions in recent years by switching partially to diesel and wind power. If and when the facility shuts down, however, it should still prevent a significant amount of carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere in the fragile Caribbean. Thus, the closing of Guantanamo can be considered a victory for activists from both the civil rights and environmental corners (not that they are mutually exclusive). So, we say "Good job, Obama." Let's hope it's an indication that you're serious about the other major issues on your plate: reversing disastrous climate change, ending U.S. dependence on foreign oil, protection of our natural resources, saving the world, etc. Don't worry, no pressure or anything.