Terrorists on Parade
by TChris
Karl Rove, we're told, strives to turn a politician's weaknesses into strengths. George Bush has given him plenty to work with.
One presidential weakness has been an inability to obey the law or to respect fundamental human rights. And so his administration has whisked people away to secret prisons in foreign lands, all the while (for the sake of national security) refusing to acknowledge that it has done so. Until now.
Now the president wants to turn his use of secret detentions (probably accompanied by torture) into a virtue. He did it to protect us. So why isn't national security imperiled by yesterday's admission that his administration has held detainees in secret prisons? All fourteen detainees just happen to have exhausted their intelligence value in the same week, and so they're off to Guantanamo. Fourteen bad guys had to be hidden away to protect us, but now it's time to bring them out into the open so they can go on trial before one of the sham tribunals the president wants the legislature to endorse.
Why the sudden reveal of the gang of fourteen? The president's party is in danger of losing complete control of the government. It's time to convince the public that the president has saved our hides from dangerous terrorists. Hauling the evildoers to Guantanamo -- sort of a terrorist perp walk, without the cameras -- shows us that all the human rights violations, all the law-breaking, was worth it.
Don't think about it too hard, and maybe you'll believe that lawless presidential behavior is good for a democracy.
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