The transfer of all the high-value AQ prisoners to Gitmo is pretty astounding. The President delivered the news quite passionately and forcefully, obviously making his best attempt to convey the seriousness of an issue many have stopped taking seriously.
The expert pontificators are saying this move was designed to give the Republican Congress one final chance to hit a ninth inning home run by getting a comprehensive and tough bill passed this fall dictating how America will handle captured terrorists in the future. I'll add the following comment, "before the democrats manage to regain power and water down the whole thing".
The calculus here is both brilliant and necessary. Part two of the democrats's Six Point Plan is to 'tell the truth' about the GWoT, which Bush did today by outing the CIA's secret prisons. By bringing these guys to Gitmo under Geneva it clearly shows how dramatic it would be for them to lawyer their way free, and the Democrats will be hard-pressed to oppose such a thing.
Perhaps the Dems might counter by insisting access to KSM and the gang just to make sure Bush wasn't pulling the wool over Dick Durbin's eyes. But it's hard to imagine them out campaigning against Bush this fall, spouting off about torture, secret gulags and Bush's inability to keep us safe while the repubs are down the block pointing out how the Dems would like to handle the likes of KSM and Binalshibh.
In a weird way the Democrats' strategy ties in with a strange complex some on the left have about terror threats prior to 9/11. Try convincing a Clinton supporter that terrorism was an growing issue in the 90s and your head might well explode--even bringing the topic up causes an instant flaming reaction as pointed out by the above links.
I suspect that's because a worldview that separates terrorism from politics doesn't fit into any of their memes--"Bush is causing the terrorism", "Bush isn't protecting America", "Bush is scaring America needlessly", "Bush didn't connect the dots on 9/11", "Bush is trying to take over the world", "Bush is stupid". And that's just the GWoT, add Iraq and there are dozens more. Take 'em away and we might actually have to look seriously at the issue.
Heck, the Dems should just throw caution to the wind and formally cozy up to the "9/11 Truth Teller" crowd exemplified by the 75 nutty professors who think 9/11 was an inside job. Wonder if they realize such a move would render KSM and the rest as innocent victims? I'd like to see that campaign commercial.
But the Repubs aren't gonna wiggle off the hook here. Bush's speech today was great, but it comes right after the Congressional leaders had just announced a trash-canning of the immigration bill. Yeah, seems more important issues have come up--like campaigning--and they just don't have time! As Gomer liked to say, "surprise, surprise".
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