Why GTMO?

Policymaking, bureaucratic decision-making, and the interagency process are always subject to criticism. They are often described as too slow, too political, too complex, or too much a product of compromise. All of this is true, but this criticism ignores the most relevant and significant fact the process works. And not only does it work, but also it ensures that decisions take into consideration all relevant factors and that they are the best possible decisions at the time they are made. The purpose of this paper is to outline the interagency decision process that selected the U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the location to detain the illegal combatants from the Global War on Terrorism.