Guantanimo? Never Mind......

Now that the Democrats feel comfortable that Obama will win the election, the world looks different to them.

Despite having attempted for the past seven years to take down George Bush's Presidency over the "inhumane" and "unjust" treatment accorded prisoners in the Abu Grahib-like facility in Guantanamo, the NY Times front-page story ran a bit different.  And the Wall Street Journal has called them on it.

In their 1,600-word dispatch "Next President Will Face Test on Detainees," reporters William Glaberson and Margot Williams discover that, gee whiz, many of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay really are dangerous terrorists. The Times reviewed "thousands of pages" of evidence that the government has so far made public and concludes that perhaps the reality is more complicated than the critics claim.

Lo and behold, detainees are implicated in such terror attacks as the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. Those with "serious terrorism credentials" include al Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and the so-called "Dirty 30," Osama bin Laden's cadre of bodyguards. The Times didn't mention Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of 9/11, though he's awaiting a war-crimes tribunal at Gitmo too.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain have pledged to put Guantanamo out of business, but, as the Times explains, "the review of the government's public files underscores the challenges of fulfilling that promise. The next president will have to contend with sobering intelligence claims against many of the remaining detainees." Now they tell us.

For example, at least 60 detainees have been cleared for release or transfer but no other countries will accept them. If Gitmo is no longer a prison, some U.S. facility would have to house the remaining men while they await habeas hearings and trials. Yet no politician has offered up his state or district as an alternative -- and none will. Further: If military commissions are cashiered altogether, how will prosecutors protect classified information and intelligence sources and methods in open civilian criminal court?

We guess it's easier for Mr. Bush's many opponents to admit all of this now that he's about to leave office. Perhaps the painstaking work of the Administration and Congress to establish a legal architecture for handling enemy combatants and to balance competing wartime priorities will look better when the political temperature is lower. After a few harrowing threat briefings, maybe the new Commander in Chief won't rush to undo Mr. Bush's programs.

You can bet that there will be many more such reversals in perspective on almost every major issue that the Left harangued the Bush Administration on.   Like Annie, they're all singing:

The sun'll come out 

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar 

That tomorrow

There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs,

And the sorrow

'Til there's none!

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

So ya gotta hang on

'Til tomorrow

Come what may

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya Tomorrow!

You're always

A day

A way!