Obama and Gitmo redux

It appears that Obama no longer "rejects as false the dichotomy of our ideals and safety". He's created a special kind of "justice" for some of the Gitmo prisoners that will enable him to detain them without charges. I'm not happy about this, because I think it's wrong, and I think it will compromise our security more than letting those people go. To convict those who can be proven guilty, and let the rest go (preferably with compensations for the damage done to their lives), would have been a powerful blow to the Al Qaeda propaganda machine. But let's get real here, and not pretend that this shows that there is no difference between Obama and Bush. Obama is winding this up at a faster rate than Bush did, and he is also creating a system that will evaluate prisoners on an objective criterion, rather than making their imprisonment a matter of presidential whim. Those are steps in the right direction, although not far enough.

I think Obama has taken this position because he knows that fear of terrorism is the most powerful card the Republicans have, and that doing the right thing in this context could be fatal politically. I think the best thing to do would be to call their bluff, and argue aggressively that we are safer with this issue behind us. But I don't have to agree with Obama to be grateful that he is the best president we have had since Clinton. I think that given time, I will end up saying that he is the best president in my lifetime.