It’s interesting to see the other way of looking at the last 7 years of the Bush presidency. This WSJ editoral states:
Nearly seven years after 9/11, the U.S. homeland hasn’t been struck again and American civil liberties remain intact. So how does Congress say “thank you”? By trying to ruin the men who in good faith set the legal rules that have kept us safe.
My take on Bush’s tactics in the last 7 years have been the most blunt and hamfisted way of solving the problem. Rather than trying to stick to American principles of liberty, rule of law, habeus corpus, etc, the Bush administration has used brutal tactics more appropriate to a dictator. Extreme secrecy, torture, indefinite detention, illegal wiretapping - these are the tactics of tyranny. The WSJ article seems to imply that the ends justify the means. I must respectfully disagree. The thing I love the most about America is our Constitution and the Bill of Rights it forces upon government to ensure our freedoms, not safety, under any circumstance. To use these illegal tactics subverts the very thing which they claim to protect and makes a mockery of those Rights. How can we protect freedom by indefinitely detaining others without charge?
From Wikipedia:
Since the beginning of the current war in Afghanistan, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantanamo, approximately 420 of whom have been released without charge. [...] Of the roughly 355 still incarcerated, U.S. officials said they intend to eventually put 60 to 80 on trial and free the rest.
So we detained 90% of the Gitmo prisoners based on little or no evidence at all. If you were one of the many locked up without charge for years, would you want someone held responsible for the injustice? If it were Russia holding 700 Americans for years without charge, wouldn’t you be outraged at the injustice? “…with liberty and justice for all.”