When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, there were a few items on his platform which I, and many others, found attractive. Whether it was his stance on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” his considerations towards easing up on the Cuban embargo or his promise to close down Guantanamo Bay, they were positions which many people were hopeful about the future of American policy.
Personally, I was ready to see the horrible policies we’ve had involving Cuba come to an end — the embargo has done nothing but further exacerbate the plight of the Cuban people, and Guantanamo Bay has served as nothing more than a place for us to bend international law.
As we near the end of Obama’s first — and perhaps only — term, we can see many of these promises from his ‘08 platform have not come to fruition. While “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may have finally ended, the rest have remained untouched.
Due to recent events, it seems there may be more pressure from outside forces to hold one of these promises — the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
Last week, the documentary “You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo” was released in the United Kingdom and follows the story of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who was taken captive when he was only 15 years old.
Khadr reportedly threw a grenade that killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. Since then, he has been under U.S. military custody, where he was tried as an adult and faced a military tribunal from 2005 to 2010.
When he finally pled guilty to the charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, spying and providing material support for terrorism, he received a sentence of eight years — one year of which he would spend in Guantanamo Bay before heading back to Canada.
Many of you may find parts of this shady. I know I, and others like the U.N., certainly do.
But the justice in trying 15-year-old Khadr as an adult is questionable at best. Ultimately, besides being the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried under President Obama, it was also the first case where a child soldier has been tried since World War II.
The U.N. dictates child soldiers should be treated more as victims than perpetrators due to how they are often forced into the conflict against their will. Clearly the U.S. government hasn’t done so and has subjected Khadr to more injustice.
It’s specifically the injustices he faced during one of his four-day interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, which is being focused on by the documentary. Taken from footage of the interrogation, excerpts show a sobbing Khadr trying to get those questioning him to take a closer look at some wounds sustained while in Afghanistan, only to be flippantly dismissed.
Additionally, one of Khadr’s lawyers stated he was abused by his American guards, and how he may have been coerced into admitting things he did not actually do. Really, what else would one expect when it comes to torture or “enhanced interrogation?”
Hopefully, the release of this documentary will help to get more people to push for the closing of Guantanamo Bay, so no more atrocities like this can occur. Our president has broken his repeated promises to close down what has become a mark against American justice.
Because we can’t undo what was done to him, it may be too late to do the right thing for Khadr now, but perhaps we can take his situation as a clarion call for why Guantanamo has to close.
Our justice system needs to be used to help prevent injustices and not perpetuate them simply because they weren’t performed on American soil.
 
Zachary Davis is a 20-year-old history junior from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at [email protected]