Great article, however,I take exception of her referring to the War on Terror as an ideological war, like the Cold War. The Soviets never attacked us with bombs, killing thousands of our citizens.

Like I said, I disagree with some of her observations. In the column she writes that she is "appalled by this administration's detention practices and interrogation policies, by the lack of a legal mechanism to judge the guilt of alleged terrorists, and by the absence of any outside investigation into reports of prison abuse."

I beg to differ with her. To compare this war we are in historically with the Cold War is, I believe, fallacious. This so-called "assymmetrical" war is unlike any other in our history, even Vietnam. This new enemy does not have the traditional trappings of former adversaries; indeed, they hide, like spies, under our very noses and undermine our society, in addition to fighting our troops with non-confrontational methods, i.e., IEDs. More to follow.

She's right though. By using hyperbole instead of frank language about what is and isn't going on at Guantanamo, Amnesty is making itself less credible and easier to dismiss. A real assessment of the situation might cause the US to modify its policies rather than blowing their report off. The truest line in the article is "The United States, as the world's largest and most powerful democracy, remains, for all its flaws, the world's best hope for the promotion of human rights. If Amnesty still believes in its stated mission, its leaders should push American democratic institutions to influence U.S. policy for the good of the world, and not attack the American government for the satisfaction of their own political faction."

The problem with Guantanamo = Gulag is far more dangerous than the outrage of comparing a relatively benign detention of unlawful combatants whose stateless activity lies outside the Geneva Conventions with that of state policy of mass detention and death.

The real problem here IS a political/ideological problem whereby those on the left seek to undermine the understanding of language and meaning to create a moral relevancy that will judge those who take active and effective measures against Islamo-fascism with the same disapproval as those who commit terrorist atrocities in the first place.

It's as if we hold the bombers of Dresden and Hiroshima to the same moral account as those who perpetrated the holocaust.

The consequence of this relativsim is that it will embolden and enable further atrocity and horror.

Mike, excellent analysis. The constant pounding of leftist ideas using these catch-words and phrases has done a lot of damage to the US. That is why I am glad the "gulag" controversy so quickly turned on AI.

The real problem is that the left does hold the bombers of Dresden and Hiroshima to the same moral account as the nazis and imperial japanese. This game is played out today as the press -- the public disseminator of the ideas of the left -- happily play up the "we are just as evil" angle at every opportunity. I have had many discussions with these folks about those two events you mentioned and the reaction is always the same. They are horrified that we could do such a thing. I remind them that "war is all hell" and that if you do not fight to win at all costs you will lose.

I hope America is not as weak as it seems to be by these reactions. Because there are bigger storms on the horizon for us.

George:

I'm not encouraged that we in the U.S. will figure out the trap which the Orwellian siren song of world socialist revisionism is springing on us.

I never thought we could do more than contain Soviet ambitions and certainly was dubious that President Reagan could not only succeed with rollback, but eventual victory in the cold war, so I hope I am wrong.

In college I was one of a small group of individuals that had dinner with a survivor of Hiroshima. Naturally, the reason the dinner was held was to equate the current Administration's policies with hyper-American aggression against peace loving peoples... AND IT WAS THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION IN POWER AT THE TIME.

The issue of great concern today is how the events of September 11 will be interpreted. You might have seen the stories that a "memorial" at Ground Zero would feature every American atrocity from the Indian wars to present day.

I've posted on that at Mike's America... feel free to drop on in sometime and comment.