The time to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp has long past. Its existence and practices are both wrong and antithetical to the ideology that US citizens are proud to represent.

Criticism of the camp comes from NGOs, Congress-people, and administration officials alike. The International Committee of the Red Cross has reported that the camp practices several activities that are tantamount to torture. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates came into office opposed to the camp, though then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Vice President Dick Cheney stood against his sentiment. While Republican and Democrat lawmakers both agree that the facility should be shut down, high-ranking officials in the administration continue to stand by and defend this barbarism.

The United States sends mixed messages home and abroad by posturing as lovers and protectors of liberty and freedom while simultaneously fostering archaic and barbaric methods and conditions of detention. Detaining people without reason or charge in such conditions is cruel and unusual.

With America's reputation bruised on a global scale as it is, it is important that we work towards living up to our own morals and standards. By doing so, we encourage other nations to live by rules of humanism and tolerance, not retribution and militant vengeance. In an effort to minimize anti-American extremism abroad, we must stop tolerating anti-American behavior at home.