The "Cleanliness" of Hypocrisy

Nothing seems to excite liberals quite so much as when they go about supposedly "righting wrongs" perpetrated by evil conservatives. Latest example is BHO's order closing down - within a year - the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A thread on The Volokh Conspiracy blog has been discussing a few ideas on how that task might be accomplished, but some of the commenters there seem giddy about this supposed "victory" over GWB. See here and here, for instance. Or read the entire thread for more flavor. [208 comments at one count].

Widely seen as the epitomy of torture and brutality, few take the time to remember why "Gitmo" was needed in the first place. For that memory jogger one needs the historical perspective of this Belmont Club entry. During his administration if it hadn't been for WJC's desire to keep his hands "clean" by cruelly and unproductively dealing with terrorists through third party entities, and the deniability - and paucity of intelligence - that afforded him, we likely wouldn't have had the deadly result of 9/11.

But who really knows? What is provable is that since then, by virtue of the intelligence obtained from interrogations at Gitmo [of non-state affiliated terrorist gunmen captured while dangerously trying to blend in with local citizenry], the war on terror has NOT had to have been fought on our shores. But for some that apparently is not a good thing.

So once again liberals throw out wisdom in search of "cleanliness". The terrorists we capture post Gitmo will apparently not have to worry about gaining weight during incarceration any more, but will they tell us anything to prevent future attacks - or will they even survive? Their future - and ours - looks much bleaker. I suspect we are returning to "don't ask, don't tell" once again. Merely in order to "feel good" about ourselves. Hypocrisy. Hope and change.