Why We Need Nukes And Gitmo ( Jonah Goldberg )

Well, there's the obvious stuff. Both have Spanish names. Neither is a great spot for a family vacation. And each is under the control of the federal government.

Oh, and both are essential tools in wars a lot of people claim they want to win.

See, Yucca Mountain is where the government wants to keep incredibly dangerous substances -- nuclear waste -- until we figure out a better way to handle it.

And Guantanamo Bay is where the federal government keeps incredibly dangerous people -- jihadi enemy combatants -- until we figure out a better way to handle them.

Victory in the war against climate change is inconceivable without nuclear power. Even if we turned America's breadbasket into ethanol-corn and solar farms, we wouldn't come close to reducing American carbon emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 (Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's avowed goal, slightly more than John McCain's target of 60%). Even if every American lived like a Prius-driving, vegan eco-feminist, we'd still fall far short. A recent MIT study found that even the homeless in America have twice the carbon footprint of the global average.

Clean, efficient, safe nuclear energy could force enormous savings in CO2 emissions, replacing coal- and gas-burning power plants on a scale solar never can. It also would boost America's "energy independence," a phrase environmentalists use to enlist support from Americans immune to climate fear-mongering.

Is it a silver bullet? Surely not. But expanding our nuclear energy infrastructure certainly belongs near the top of the list of options for anybody who actually means it when they say we need to do "everything in our power" to stop global warming. (I'm not one of those people, by the way.)

What? We AREN’T shoving the nuclear waste and the jihadist detainees through the Stargate?

Jack O’Neill, get back to your post! America and the world NEED you!

And Guantanamo Bay is where the federal government keeps incredibly dangerous people -- jihadi enemy combatants -- until we figure out a better way to handle them.

Obama, Clinton and McCain have vowed to close GITMO.

CBS 60 Minutes Transcript Excerpt: Sen. John McCain, April 8, 2007:

PELLEY: Would you close Guantanamo Bay?

MCCAIN: Yes. I would close Guantanamo Bay. And I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. And I would proceed with the tribunals.

McCain Would Close Gitmo on First Day as President.

So, that would mean that the prisoners would be moved on the first day of McCain presidency.

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On Day 1 (January 20, 2009) of the McCain presidency, by his action of moving detainees from GITMO to Leavenworth, McCain will de facto grant al-Qaeda detainees all the Constitutional rights that any other person on US soil would receive -- because, the moment any of these al-Qaeda detainees' feet touch US soil, they get all the Constitutional rights accorded any other person on US soil.

The original purpose of the GITMO facility was to keep the al-Qaeda detainees off US soil, so as not to grant them de facto Constitutional protection.

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McCain would do great damage by bringing al-Qaeda detainees onto US soil.

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