“It shows a conscience, a belief that we can be better, which is something that separates us from our barbaric enemies.”

How is this different from the threat, “If we don’t do thus and so, the terrorists will have won”?

In either case, you’re basing your behavior on what the other guy is doing, and not on what you think needs to be done in that particular situation.

It increasingly seems to me that logically we should be doing some mass annihilation of our enemies abroad, perhaps starting with all the Gitmo detainees rather than releasing them. Just because some South Koreans did the same thing 50 years ago, does that make it the wrong thing to do now?