Closing Gitmo: an important first step

    President Barack Obama stood on the west steps of the Capitol on Tuesday and assured the world that America is "ready to lead once more." It took him less than 12 hours to show that he intends to uphold his end of the deal — that he intends to be a president who "reject[s] as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
    Obama took the crucial first step in redressing abuses of the rule of law in the War on Terror by signing a series of executive orders Thursday that will effectively end the Central Intelligence Agency's coercive interrogation methods and close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year. With one signature, Obama revoked a Bush administration policy that had called into question America's moral and legal claim to world leadership.
    Obama correctly denounced these clandestine interrogation methods during the campaign, and this move signals that he intends on following through with the policies he has been promoting for the last two years.
    Before midnight on his first day in office, Obama reminded the world that a new administration inhabits 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. And this one intends on meeting new threats with old ideologies — ones that lie squarely within the realm of the U.S. Constitution and international norms.
    For a nation that has watched its "soft power" — its ability to influence through means other than coercion — diminish following the release of the Abu Ghraib images in 2004, this move will prove pivotal in restoring frayed relationships with our allies, assuring them that we intend on abiding by international laws.
    Still, the new administration has a long way to go. Obama may have repudiated the most disputed policies of his successor's administration, but he also ordered a review of some of the more complicated issues, deferring many decisions for the coming months. This will likely enable him to more effectively confront these issues, but he must be careful not to let this slide to the back burner. This is of utmost importance. He must establish a legal framework through which his administration can evaluate the 255 current detainees and develop a system through which innocent detainees can be repatriated.
    Obama recognizes just how difficult these decisions will be, but he also recognizes just how important it is to abide by the Geneva Conventions and the rule of law in general.
    We hope that this executive order will not only mark a new era in government in which transparency is the norm, but that it will also mark the beginning of a number of moves that will strengthen the Constitution – a charter "expanded by the blood of generations," which sought to "assure the rule of law and the rights of man."