EDIT: Guantanamo or bust

Ever since 2007, U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Despite his efforts to lobby congress, the detention camp is still open. Obama said in a news conference Tuesday that Guantanamo Bay is “inefficient,” “costly” and a recruitment tool for extremists. He has reaffirmed his stance because 100 of the 166 inmates are currently on a hunger strike — some have been since February, the BBC reports. More than 40 nurses have been deployed to Guantanamo to help the medical staff force feed the inmates.

Force-feeding inmates is inarguably cruel, degrading and especially inhumane treatment. Medical professionals are helping keep inmates alive, but they are forcing them against their will. Guantanamo has a past of torture — one of the main tactics being waterboarding — that did not lead to any viable intelligence. Although some of the inmates are allowed to Skype home to their families, these 166 people are all imprisoned in a foreign facility and haven’t had a proper trial as an unending conflict rages in the Middle East. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp should be closed so these people can stop hurting themselves and return home.

But the U.S. government is unsure of this with good reason. These inmates are all suspected of some form of terrorism. If they have plotted against the U.S., then they should be convicted after a trial by jury just as any other inmate in an American prison. By holding these people without due process, the U.S. is emulating countries such as North Korea that hold journalists in prison for months. If Guantanamo closes, the U.S. needs to find a place for these inmates, yet no states want to take them.

Officials need to bite the bullet and begin fairly reviewing each inmate’s case. If there is sufficient evidence to keep them behind bars, then there is every reason to keep terrorists from forming another plot against the U.S. We need a place to put those people, and if we are going to continue our efforts against terrorism, Guantanamo Bay is the place. Guantanamo serves that purpose, but not everyone deserves to be there. As an institution it doesn’t need to go away altogether if actual terrorists are jailed there. It was created to keep the country safe.