Guantanamo is a pointless, self-inflicted tragedy without end. The point at which tragedy transforms into comedy has long since passed when human rights groups are petitioning the government to keep Guantanamo open. It is an amazing turnaround. Seven years ago when the President announced the closing of Guantanamo, it was lauded as a return to moral decency, the better angels of our nature. Today, the same promise is seen as a perpetuation of the status quo.

How did we get so far down this road? By failing to act. Fear and cowardice have reingned supreme in our ineffective political classes. Everywhere down the line from a militant Congress that refuses to declare war, to the Court’s inability to offer clear constitutional guidance on the tribunals, to the President’s absurd insistence about taking his time out of need to get it right when there was no way that would happen because the whole sordid mess was wrong to begin with. There are too many casualties to count. Crimes compound more crimes leading to more victims.

In the end, though, the facts will prove to be the greatest casualty. The Courts exist to pass judgement upon the accused. Judgement implies truth. Truth demands evidence. Evidence implies facts. But the facts cannot be allowed to take front and center because of the incontrovertible evidence that we acted in a stupid, brutal, criminal, cavalier, unjust, and incompetent manner.

We put the blame for this everywhere but ourselves. The Geneva Conventions, it is argued, were not up to the special circumstances of non state belligerents captured in the “theater of war”. That’s up for debate, but it’s also a red herring. On this matter, the Constitution too was silent. But it need not speak. It has bequeathed the three branches with all the authority and power to act with deliberative haste. Instead, the problem was allowed to fester. Every attempt to solve it seemed designed to fail. Ignore it. Delay it. Justify it. Civilian courts, military commissions. No matter. It would not go away.

Even now, it seems passé to dredge up the past. In 14 years, 800 men passed through the prision. Fewer then a hundred are there today. Long since are the days when Guantanamo seemed to serve as a hot button in our political battles or a “marketing tool” for terrorists. The old saw is right. Tragedy does not age well. A plane crashing into the ground holds our rapt attention. Imagine the same crash strung out over a period of days, months, years and decades. People can’t help but lose interest. It’s not in our nature. It’s not who we are. We find it impossible to care that long. So no one cares anymore. Not enough to put an end to this slow moving plane crash.

Sad, when the obvious answer has been staring us in the face all this time. Charge them. Charge them, or release them and be done with it. Charge them and let the chips fall where they may. Charge them, but only in civilian courts. Close the tribunals. They are failing precisely because they exist only to try and cover up our shame. And if evidence is excluded, so be it. Let it serve as a textbook example about the value of due process. There is no manner of justification to hold but not accuse. It goes against everything we are. Those we cannot charge we should release immediately to their home of origin, or any country willing to accept them. And if they turn back to fight us, then common sense says to fight them back.

What does not make sense are the absurd claims that our system of indefinite detention somehow benefits our interests or protects us from future harm. It neither serves as an effective deterrent nor applies to circumstances of perpetual undeclared war.