Once again, President Barack Obama has voiced his desire to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison, saying the prison that holds enemy combatants and terrorists is “not sustainable.”

We disagree. The prison at Guantanamo Bay serves this nation by holding some of this nation’s most dangerous enemies, including those responsible for planning and carrying out the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people. The inmates are terrorists and enemy combatants who are undergoing or awaiting trial by military tribunals.

Obama would have Congress lift restrictions and allow these inmates to be transferred to prisons on American soil to be tried in the federal court system.

The difficulty of trying these inmates in civilian courts would be monumental. Some evidence against them is classified. Some inmates would use their trials as forums to espouse their hateful agendas. Some of the detainees have been deemed to be too dangerous to release, but too difficult to successfully prosecute.

At some time the prison at Guantanamo Bay should be shut down, but that time is not now, not while we still have enemies at war with the U.S.