One hundred prisoners held in the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are engaged in a hunger strike -- a desperate attempt to get the attention of President Obama, who was elected in 2008 having promised to shut the place down. Not only did Obama fail to close the facility, his administration has neglected to appoint anyone to oversee repatriation of the 86 current prisoners who have been cleared for release.

Among the 166 detainees at Guantanamo, some, no doubt, are true enemies of the United States. It is no secret, however, that hapless fringe characters and many completely innocent men were also swept up in the fog of the George W. Bush administration’s “war on terror” and sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo. A Kabultaxi driver who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time spent a year of his life in detention. One British citizen spent five years imprisoned because he looked like somebody else who was an authentic bad guy. An Afghan who had fought alongside American troops at Tora Bora was accused falsely by someone with a grudge against him and ended up with a one-way trip to Cuba.

It is absurd to have to point this out, but too many members of Congress seem to have forgotten: The American Revolution was fought, in part, on the principle that no person should be kept in prison without a chance to defend himself, face his accusers and be judged by a fair court. Abandoning this American ideal, Republicans have