WILTON PARK, UK—On our day-trip into London, we made a stop at the American embassy. A fairly heated discussion about Guantanamo Bay and torture completely dominated the hour we spent there. Guantanamo was raised simply as an example of an issue that must very carefully defended overseas; I believe our speaker merely referenced it in passing. The minute the issue was raised, my European and American colleagues took the opportunity to delve in more deeply. We hardly discussed anything else from that point.

Much of the critique I had already heard back in the States, even by some of our own policy makers and elected officials: violating the Geneva conventions, hypocritical, immoral, secretive, detrimental to the West’s efforts in the Middle East, and a bit disgraceful overall. One of the American students said “embarrassing.”

By my interpretation, the defense that was made in “support” of Guantanamo was less of a defense and more of an explanation why we have not “fixed it” yet: it’s complicated (there was going to be no convincing this audience of a legitimate defense of Guantanamo anyway). If we close Guantanamo, where do all the prisoners go? How can we be assured that they will not resort to terrorist activity? How can we ensure that they will be treated well when they return? Should foreign nationals be permitted to go to the United States instead of their home country?

Morality and policy issues aside, there was something interesting in the reaction of the group—question after question after question. A rather polite group of young people suddenly stopped raising their hands, and began speaking out of turn. Many grew frustrated. After we left the embassy, the bus was loud and sort of tense. I turned around in my seat to see 50 young people from 18 countries engaged in serious, lively discussion about rendition policy, torture, the War on Terror, and the future…and all of it about my country. I knew it was a divisive and complicated issue, but I had not seen the divisiveness manifest. In their eyes and in their voices, I saw the profound effects of my country—policy preferences aside.

My European colleagues’ real question seemed to be something along the lines of “Why did America disappoint us, when we had so much faith in and admiration for her?” although no one was asking it that way.

I’m glad they didn’t…I don’t think there is an easy way to answer that.