Guantanamo

The NYT is calling for the United States to shut down Guantanamo Bay not only because of the extra-judicial nature of the prison system, but because of it's deleterious effect on our national reputation. While I would agree that those held in Gitmo should be charged with a crime eventually or released, the whole argument about repairing America's reputation is a strawman.

The world (mainly Muslims) resents us not for any particular reason. The Gitmo detention center didn't exist when 19 Muslims crashed 2 planes into the World Trade Centers. They hate us because of their own societies train them to hate us. If we shut down Gitmo, there'd just be another reason to hate us. And another, and another, and another. The New York Times seems to hold the liberal view that we're just inciting hatred. Conservatives know that they'll hate us until their own situation is fixed.