Presidential Libraries and Guantanamo

Dear Mr. President,
Do those 166 men you abandoned in Guantanamo ever bother your conscience? No charges, no trials, no threat to America, cleared for release years ago but still in cages with no hope of ever getting out. Guantanamo is part of the Bush legacy but there was no mention of it Thursday in the dedication of the new $250 million Bush presidential library. No mention either of Iraq or Afghanistan, no mention of WMDs or Operation Enduring Freedom, a disaster that left millions displaced, hundreds of thousands dead or maimed and much of the world in chaos. Clinton spoke truth Thursday when he pointed to that new library and joked that it was “the latest, grandest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history.” You, Carter, Clinton, all rewriting history. Did it bother you to stand with a war criminal and call him “a good man”? Did you cringe when you lauded his leadership by paying tribute to “the incredible strength and resolve… as he stood amid the rubble and the ruins of Ground Zero, promising to deliver justice to those who had sought to destroy our way of life” knowing he delivered not justice but injustice to people who were no threat and had nothing to do with the rubble on which he stood? Did it cross your mind that this man being honored should be standing in the dock at the Hague answering for his crimes against humanity instead of standing on stage in the bright Texas sun soaking up the adulation and accolades of fellow presidents and admirers—many of whom should have been in the dock with him? Did you remember his lies and concocted evidence of WMDs in Iraq? The bloodshed and destruction that his ignorance, hubris and greed caused? Bush is proud of his tough decisions he says, comfortable with his legacy, but it is a legacy of lies, deceit and bad decisions, and you covered for him as you hope your successor will cover for you—“to look forward not backward”— to make sure he is not held accountable and Bush’s legacy of shame is now part of your legacy, Mr. President—Afghanistan, drone wars, targeted assassinations, kill lists, indefinite detention, Guantanamo. One day you will open the Obama presidential library and share the stage with former presidents who will praise you and never mention the misery and heartache you leave behind. There will be no mention of those 166 men you left in Guantanamo; by then many will be dead, the rest forgotten. But they will be one of the indelible stains on your shameful legacy.