Guantanamo, pt. 2: "And there you have it."

H.D.S. Greenway in the Boston Globe comments on the "gulag" flap and cites a letter to the New York Times written by Amnesty International's William Shultz...

There are plenty of people in this world who hate America -- considerably more since Bush took office -- but Amnesty International is not among them. Its research is thorough, and its findings considered. It often reflects what the United States says it wants for the world.

''No amount of spin," Shultz wrote, ''can erase the myriad human rights abuses committed by the United States in the 'war on terror.' The United States cannot simultaneously claim that it 'promotes freedom around the world' while detaining tens of thousands without charge or trial."

And there you have it. The United States is engaged in a long-term effort to persuade an alienated Muslim world that the United States stands for justice. By allowing systematic torture and indefinite detention to sully our system, we have handed our enemies the most perfect recruiting tool we could devise, for it exposes all our high ideals about democracy to the charges of hypocrisy.

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