For Shame

On Dec. 7, the Tatler reported that the Obama administration was faced with a crucial decision: whether to release a Hezbollah terrorist who masterminded the torture and murder of five American servicemen in Iraq in 2007 or bring him to Guantanamo Bay to face justice for his brutal war crimes.  Ali Musa Daqduq was being held by American forces, and the transfer to Gitmo had to occur before American forces left Iraq.  To his everlasting shame, President Obama turned Daqduq over to the Iraqi government last Friday as our forces left the country.  FOX News is already reporting that the Iraqi government only plans to charge Daqduq with illegal entry with a forged passport.  So there is no longer any doubt that he will be released (after a minor legal tussle) like the dozens of other terrorists who attacked U.S. forces that the Iraqi government has set free.

In the midst of Obama’s self-congratulatory exit from Iraq, he has committed a disgraceful and dishonorable act that will help define his presidency – he allowed a vicious murderer who targeted Americans to go free.  As David Lucas, the brother of one of the slain soldiers, told The New York Times, turning Daqduq over to the Iraqis is “as good as letting him go free.”  Lucas added: “It’s just a matter of time before the guy is walking the streets there.  It feels like my brother’s death was in vain. It doesn’t matter, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Your opinion does not matter to what they want to do in geopolitics.”

What “they” wanted to do was not upset their political base by bringing a new prisoner to Guantanamo Bay.  President Obama just showed us that he is willing to sacrifice the safety of the American military and the most basic interests of justice to ensure liberal support of his reelection.  He thus gave truth to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s conclusion that “in politics there is no honor.”