In his speech at the National Defense University on Thursday, President Obama spoke about the need to close the prison for wartime detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. But a Duke national security expert argues there's no clear path to closure. http://islamicommentary.org/2013/05/david-schanzer-obama-makes-the-case-... David Schanzer Associate professor of the practice, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University; director, Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security schanzer@duke.edu http://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/schanzerhttp://tcths.sanford.duke.edu David Schanzer teaches courses and conducts research on counterterrorism strategy, counterterrorism law and national security. He previously served as Democratic staff director of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Quote: "Obama's call for closing GITMO in the name of national security and our values is right on the money. Renewed presidential vigor to make progress on closure -- like that which infused the beginning of Obama's first term -- can certainly make a difference. But the pragmatic and political difficulties that dogged the effort for years have not changed, and are likely to take the wind out of this renewed effort as well. "There is no clear, achievable path to total closure. A strong effort in the second Obama term could dramatically reduce the detainee population, but this is a nettlesome problem that will probably be left for Obama’s successor to finish off."