Iraq/Detainee News Round-Up

First of all, let me apologize for being virtually MIA for the last couple of weeks. Surprisingly, there are times when they actually expect us to work in law school, and my professors are not always so kind as to stagger the work load so I'll still have time to blog with abandon.

Secondly, thanks to Nat-Wu for his eloquant statement on the gay marriage amendment. I agree with him whole-heartedly, and do take comfort in the fact that I also believe that in our lifetimes we will see gays accorded full rights as citizens.

For this post however, I'm going to focus on Iraq and the detainee situation. Quite a bit has happened over the past couple of weeks. I don't think the indicment of Libby has directly touched off a debate about how we're handling detainees of the "war on terror", but it's certainly contributed to our debate over Iraq, which has contributed to our debate over the status of detainees. First of all, came the revelation that our government is operating secret prisons in Eastern Europe, which the European Union has moved to investigate. At the same time, the NY Times printed this article about the sharp divide among those in the administration as to what treatment the detainees should be accorded. Then the Supreme Court agreed to hear a detainee's challenge of the President's authority to try him under the system of military tribunals established last year. The Senate responded with a bill denying the detainee's the right to challenge the tribunal system.

And in a sign that the instability in Iraq may threaten other countries in the Middle East, Zarqawi's Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia claims responsibility for an attack in Amman, Jordan. Bush's poll numbers, based largly on public mis-trust over his statements concerning Iraq, continue to drop. In response, Bush goes for the old tried-and-true tactic of accusing his critics of undermining the troops by criticizing his policies on the war. And this article in the most recent edition of The Atlantic Monthly explains why the effort to build an Iraqi army continues to be a failure.

Whew. So that's what I get for taking a couple of weeks off, right? Here's my short analysis: The pressure is now on to move away from the torture policies of the past four years, and towards according the detainees more legal rights. The Bush administration will continue to fight it, but my prediction is that the Supreme Court will move in some way to limit the President's powers under the War Powers Act to detain prisoners essentially for life. As for Iraq...it's not getting any better. Civilians continue to die in staggering numbers, the insurgency continues unabated, and the debate continues as to whether an eventual draw-down of American forces will make things better or worse. But the fact that Zarqawi's group feels bold enough to strike in other countries is a direct refutation of the neo-conservatives belief that the invasion would bring stability in the Middle East. All we can do is add it to the ever lengthening list of things they were wrong about.