This may not be fully coherent, but let me try:
This country changed for the worse long before Gitmo, Abu Graib, 11 September 2001, or the inaugurations of Bubba, Dubya or the Obamassiah. The damage may be truly irreversible, and shutting down Gitmo or continuing to run it may make little difference.
It is not an American value to torture anyone, whether via waterboarding, electrical shocks, or anything else, nor is an American value to spy on people indiscriminately, hold people indefinitely without trial, or use "secret" evidence against them in a show trial in a foreign country. How did we get into situations where we thought we had to do those things, or subcontract other people to do them on our behalf?
I am pretty sure KSM and the rest of the Al Qaeda (sp?) prisoners are evil people, and they are not simply mistaken, misunderstood, unloved, or improperly medicated. At the same time, I find it difficult to consider the people who set up and operate Gitmo to be my countrymen, even if they may wear a uniform and think they are protecting me, because their operating system seems pretty foreign to me also. It reminds me of trying to save an undamaged home from an encroaching flood by spraying it with gasoline and throwing a lit match.
As I see things, America is not a people, nor a flag, nor a military, nor a land defined by borders on a map. America is a set of ideas---among them respect for the lives and liberty of others, including those accused of crimes---that have been ignored by many people in this country for far too long, particularly its leaders.
