Says It All

Here.

I wrote one of my first major essays on Guantanamo almost three years ago, in May 2005: "Understanding the Significance of Guantanamo: The Symbol of Omnipotent Power." In that essay, I said:

[T]hat, in brief, is why Guantanamo is so crucial to the Bush's administration's goals in its war, a war that will be never-ending if it has its way: Guantanamo symbolizes the Bush administration's desire for omnipotent power -- for the administration to be able to do whatever it wants, with no oversight or interference by anyone, including the federal judiciary and including those restraints imposed by the Constitution itself.

In this manner, especially when coupled with the great danger represented by the Padilla case, the Bush administration seeks to place itself beyond all restraint derived from any source, and to make itself all-powerful. If it is successful, that will definitively and absolutely spell the end of liberty in America -- and the rest is only a matter of time, and of details. In this sense, it is entirely appropriate that Guantanamo is located where another omnipotent dictator already holds sway.

The conclusion of that piece stated:

Whether Bush and his enablers will admit it or not, in fact the policies they seek to implement would make the United States itself into one gigantic Guantanamo: where any one of us can be detained indefinitely merely upon the word or desire of one person, with no charges ever filed against us, and where we can be abused or tortured, and perhaps even murdered, at will. And no one and nothing would be able to stop or even question them. That's the future they want so desperately -- and I suggest that you always keep it in mind and never, ever forget it.

What was horrifying then, remains horrifying today.

With the passage of the Military Commissions Act, the destruction of liberty -- and the "legitimization" of torture -- is complete: "'Thus the World Was Lost'." As I have argued, with many facts to support the argument, the Democrats will not repeal that Act; repeal is very rarely mentioned by anyone now.

They will not repeal it. And still, many people will vote for Democrats in the deluded and self-deluded belief that they will.

Pathetic for them. Tragic for all of us.