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Maybe I am desperate for positive news and reading way too much into this, but in the Holder quotes Glenn provides on the topic of 9/11 detainees and the Geneva Conventions, I'm tempted to hear a relatively thoughtful attorney trying to justify ideas that he knows, on some level, are deeply problematic.
He wants to remain "almost consistent with the Geneva Conventions" and call attention to "humane treatment," but still leave that loophole to enable (presumably) brutal interrogations...but he's not able to come right out (as others were) and advocate such. True, that's hardly a profoundly principled position, but hell, compared to some of the bloodthirsty and vengeful talk about "working the dark side" in those days, it's relatively rational. And rational people can learn and change their minds, eventually, based on cooler emotions and considered evidence. I'll take that over a dumbshit ideologue any day.
What's also striking to me is the reminder that we, as a nation, immediately defaulted to the concept of "war" and to trying to fit the 9/11 CRIMINALS into the category of combatants. So you've got people like Holder struggling to apply Vietnam and WWII P.O.W. conventions to a situation that really doesn't fit the mold.
Totally OT, but Glenn, are you feeling a bit self-absorbed today? For some reason, your byline shows up three times in a row. :-)
