House of Eratosthenes

And what would be the dumbass move of the decade? If we held a vote, of course a popular nominee would be the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And I would not support that, since I consider the move to have been about a decade overdue.

I’m referring to trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York City in a civilian court. Which, in the tournament for Dumbass Move of the Decade, I would hope like the dickens would win. Bush administration officials, after all, were repeatedly called upon to explain themselves for invading Iraq. Their dumbass move was to formulate answers that might possibly make sense to those who were opposed to invading Iraq. Who, in turn, are made up mostly of the peace-at-any-price types who’ve been brought up by aging hippie mommas with hyphenated last names…people who think, bizarrely, that there are no fights between good guys and bad guys, because not-fighting is what makes a good guy good.

People who think every conflict can be negotiated, ever single violent offender can be rehab’d. People who simply cannot wrap their minds around that common and ancient situation in which one guy starts a fight and the other guy finishes it.

The last administration tried to relate to those people, and flubbed up the public relations. The P.R. always was a disaster on this thing, all the way back to Day One.

But bad P.R. doth not a bad idea make.

Eric Holder was called-upon to explain his debacle to Congress…and he did far, far worse. His answer wasn’t even coherent (hat tip to PowerLine).

The final chapter is closing on that dumbass move.

President Obama’s advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

The president’s advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.

If Obama accepts the likely recommendation of his advisers, the White House may be able to secure from Congress the funding and legal authority it needs to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and replace it with a facility within the United States. The administration has failed to meet a self-imposed one-year deadline to close Guantanamo.

The administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the president’s legal advisers are finalizing their review of the cases of Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators.

Hat tip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who adds:

Practically speaking, the White House has no other realistic options. New York City refused to hold the trial there, and no other federal jurisdiction would be likely to volunteer itself. In terms of jurisdiction, the only other court choice would be the district which includes Washington DC, which would mean a circus atmosphere in the nation’s capital for the better part of two years at the same time the federal government needs to keep operating. Note well that this option never did get floated out as a serious trial balloon. That leaves the military commissions — and an embarrassing retreat for the Obama administration.

Oh well. Embarrassment is the price to be paid for pinning your name and your reputation on ironic ideas that only capture your attention because they have never before worked.

We grant constitutional protections to everybody who attacks our country and tries to kill the people in it? Everybody? Ever since the disastrous stewardship of the Earl Warren Supreme Court, we’ve been stocking our justice system full of these little games…all of which run the same way…”you didn’t cross this t or dot this i, and so this murdering asshole that you know darn good and well is guilty, and nobody anywhere is contending otherwise, well ya just gotta pretend he never did it.” It’s part of our global human rights campaign that all murdering assholes all over the world enjoy these same advantages? That makes us a decent people?

Wrong. That would make us a suicidal people. And you’ll notice, for all the energy we put into that whole misguided mindset, all over the planet it nets us not one single new friend. That’s supposed to be the entire point of the exercise isn’t it? When we do it some other way, all these “allies” despise us so much. Well hey, AG Holder embarked on this dumbass move amid great fanfare. Did we get any new pals, even temporarily? Did anyone holding a grudge make an announcement that golly, America must not be all that bad? Did that ever happen?

Dumbass.

One of the worst legacies of the Iraq War? Not the “mission accomplished” banner, nor the 4,000 dead, nor the billions of dollars spent, or the first few years spent foundering prior to The Surge. Not the slowness of the new Iraqi government to get its act together, not the reluctance of the Iraqi public – Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds – to get on board with a freely elected government.

The worst part of the war’s legacy has been the global Left’s disgusting response to the whole kit’n kaboodle in general, and the furor over the “missing” WMD’s in particular. And how the resulting brouhaha has probably hamstrung the US government from acting in Iran for the same reasons – stopping a madman from getting his hands on nuclear weapons – for fear it’s going to embarrass us on the world stage a second time. Even when the evidence is even more compelling now with respect to Iran than it was in 2002 with respect to Iraq.

Even when Imanutjob and the Mullahs (now there’s a name for a rock band) are every bit as malevolent and threatening as Saddam Hussein was, and then some. I don’t recall even Saddam ever saying that Israel was to be “wiped off the map” with nuclear weapons. Cash payments to families of Palestinian suicide bombers was small potatoes by comparison.

This insight is all my own. It’s not anything I’ve heard mentioned in the media – conservative or otherwise – and that’s a damn shame, because it seems like a blindingly obvious point. And so, because our government and our military leadership – particularly this president – are so deathly terrified of hearing “Har har har, so where are the WMD’s, America?” a second time, we’re going to sit here and do nothing while the most dangerous country on Earth marches unimpeded toward possession of the most horrible weapons known to mankind.

It sure makes you wish for a leader who isn’t afraid to make mistakes, to tell his (or is it HER?) critics to get bent, do what is right and deal with the political consequences later. (Oops, I almost said “fallout.” Bad word choice eh?)
- cylarz | 03/05/2010 @ 22:43

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Closure…on the Dumbass Move of the DecadeFriday, March 5th, 2010

Closure…on the Dumbass Move of the Decade
Friday, March 5th, 2010