... That the war on terror is over. The Washington Post's Dana Priest has the major scoop today:
President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the "war on terror," as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.
Imagine that, a war that ends with a few strokes of the pen. I'm trying to think of other great men who ended wars by signing a few pieces of paper...Lee at Appamattox, Jodl at Rheims, Shigemitsu on board the Missouri. Or maybe what Priest means is that those parts of the war on terror that violated international norms and offended the decency of liberals and Islamists alike will now be replaced by a kinder, gentler, legitimate law enforcement action against suspected terrorists who remain innocent until proven guilty and convicted by a jury of Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, Joe Klein, and Jose Padilla (the vote must be unanimous!). Meanwhile, something that looks an awful lot like Bush's war on terror continues with a drone strike in Pakistan killing seven suspected terrorists, and news that a Gitmo detainee, no doubt innocent until his rage at being unconstitutionally detained boiled over upon release, has since emerged as the emir of al Qaeda in Yemen. Naturally, when Obama releases detainees they will be informed that the war is over, so hopefully this is the last time we'll see this kind of problem.