More on Obama Capitulation

Adam Serwer of the Blog “Tapped”, explaining that President Obama about to capiulate to "Republican hysteria" and reverse his decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Federal Court, summarized the effect of such a reversal as well as anyone:

"The Obama administration will have sacrificed a likely conviction for a military trial that will now be seen by much of the rest of the world as illegitimate. In doing this, the Obama administration has cemented the bipartisan consensus that the rule of law is a joke, and that something as important as a fair trial is subject to the whims of political elites and their short-term interests. This decision would perpetuate the myth that terrorists are supernatural bogeymen rather than thugs. KSM was not captured on a battlefield, he is not in any sense a soldier, as say a captured Taliban fighter might be. He is a criminal."

But that is just the damage this reversal will do to our nation, and the perception of our nation internationally. You would think that, if unmoved by these implications of this decision, Obama would have a better grasp of the political consequences of such a reversal:

"The GOP is simply moving to the right of whatever position the Obama administration takes. Obama took the Bush position of being able to choose arbitrarily the venue to try suspected terrorists, and the Republicans moved to his right, demanding military commissions for any foreign Muslim accused of terrorism. Obama, like Bush, wanted to close Guantanamo. But when he made moves towards doing so, the GOP decided they wanted to keep it open forever. Obama can take as many political steps to the right as he wants, the GOP will take two steps farther because there isn't any objective here beyond making the president look weak. Politically speaking, the path of expediency has the dual features of projecting cowardice and failing to pacify the administration's critics. As Spencer Ackerman writes, "Obama can fight and win. Or he can compromise, demoralize his base, and the GOP will continue to roll him."

Precisely! If anyone was Obama's base going in, I was. "DEMORALIZED" is the most benign description of my mood at the present time.

Joe H.