Like all anniversaries, this Sept. 11 prompts us to reflect on what has changed in the past decade. Certainly, the “war on terror” has brought fundamental changes to America’s place in the world, our international priorities and our system of laws. But we should also look ahead, with an eye toward what kind of nation we hope to be 10 years from now. Although people may disagree about whether the past decade’s changes have made us safer, there is no doubt they have undermined our historical commitment to human rights. Laws and policies once considered outrageous departures from our founding principles are the new normal.
The prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is the face of America’s war on terror. Designed to be outside the reach of U.S. courts, it symbolizes for much of the world that America — when attacked — will ignore the laws and principles we have long exhorted other countries to follow. Thankfully, our Constitution prevented Guantánamo from operating wholly outside the law. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the men imprisoned there for years without charge the right to challenge their detention in American courts. President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison and try those held there. Yet, three years later, it remains open. Prisoners with no links to terrorism remain behind bars because no country, including ours, will accept them. The Obama administration has also conceded that it will hold several of the men now at Guantánamo without trial because the evidence against them is insufficient or tainted by torture.
