I remember when many Senators, House Members and other diginitaries made a trip to Iraq. Some time after that trip, I was watching speeches from the Senate floor about the war in Iraq. There were speeches made both for and against the war, mostly along expected party lines. The surprise was hearing the difference between the speeches made by those who took the opportunity to see for themselves, and those who hadn't.
Those who hadn't spewed the same rhetoric that had been echoed through the press. Same talking points, same buzz words, same Blah, Blah, Blah. Those who did go take a look for themselves were in awe of what they saw. Whole families running out of their homes, waving to the U.S. Military helicopters, welcomes by Iraq civilians and the highly motivated troops they spoke to. They spoke of how those families did not know they were waving at helicopter loads of Govenment civilians, all they saw was U.S. military helicopters, and that was what they were waving at.
Of course, each side of the issue came to their own conclusions based on what they saw, but their conclusions were based on fact, not fiction filtered through the press.
Let's hope there is the same amount of wisdom used by our representatives where Guantanimo Bay is concerned.