You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
Don't ask me to explain the title (quoted from?), it just seemed the right way to title this post.My take on the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is that it is not as good as the left would like to think.
First of all, the Supremes didn't say that the war was illegal (no matter what Cindy Sheehan says), they didn't say Gitmo was illegal (no matter what John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi say), and they didn't say that the US shouldn't be holding the detainees in the first place.
Poor Hamdan, his attorney probably is telling him that this is a victory, when in fact he's just taken 18 steps backward. There is nothing to stop the US from holding him indefinitely, without due process, until the end of the war. Whenever that might be. In fact, the Supremes might have just decided that this guy will die in custody of old age rather than get a chance to have his day in court. That sort of depends on the length of the war.
It is more likely, however, that Congress will take SCOTUS up on their suggestion and legislatively mandate the system that will bring these suspected terrorists to trial. But, even so, this did not buy Hamdan a trip to the beautiful slopes of Afghanistan and the embrace of his beloved leader. Nope. He gets to go back to his cell at Camp Delta and enjoy the hospitality of the US military awhile longer. In retrospect, not really a win.
And not much of a win for the anti-war left either. But, they are so desperate for wins they'll take what they can get.
Labels: John Kerry
