Wish you were here!

Before 9/11, the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay was best known for being the place where Jack Nicholson ordered a Code Red. Those were the good old days. Now Gitmo is stuck with a real stigma, as I found when I visited the base last week. Troops there clearly feel that they’ve been tarred with an unjustly large brush, and in many respects they have been.

The truth is that the controversial detention camps—the only part of the base Obama wants to close—make up a relatively small (and new) part of Gitmo. The base itself is huge, covering 45 square miles, and resembles other military bases, with diversions like movie theaters, athletic fields, and a McDonald’s. Troops are constantly coming and going. A lot goes on there that has nothing to do with detentions. Families live there. Kids go to school there.

But none of that seems to matter. When you say “Gitmo” to most Americans, they picture a guy standing on a wooden box wearing a black hood, end of story, even though that iconic image came from Abu Ghraib. The troops I spoke with seemed universally aware of, and frustrated by, this perception.

Their sensitivity made my stop at the Gitmo souvenir shop all the more jarring. On one hand people there are very protective of the base’s image, but on the other hand they sell T-shirts that say things like, “Welcome to Paradise! GTMO, Pearl of the Antilles.” I still can’t decide whether this is contradictory. Gitmo is in the Caribbean, after all, so the same cheesy T-shirts and tchotchkes you’d see at any vacation destination seem somehow fitting. But depending on the reason for your stay at Gitmo, you may find a different meaning in some of the items for sale.

















Related:

• Philippe Sands on the Lawyers Who Green-Lighted Gitmo

• Marie Brenner on Rebel JAG Lawyer Charles Swift

• Julian Sancton Visits Guantánamo Bay—on Second Life