Those CIA tapes

This is terrible, but I'm pretty sure about this. The past several years have revealed to the world cracks in our foundation, leaks in our roof, and fools herded in Novembers to elect partisan tools for undoing what's good for us. Right now we have a big problem on our hands. The Bush administration is going to leave (unless they declare a state of emergency and contract Blackwater and KBR to imprison us all) soon, and they've avoided everything for almost 8 years.

When the next administration ascends, we'll see a half-assed Afghanistan limping along, Pakistan is doing something wierd (hasn't made the news in the past week or so), China has lumbered forward to be the big greedy bully and they've politicked and bought their way into better competitive positions than ever before. Israel has been left to its own devices, not just the state but the whole situation. Africa is pretty well committed to its perpetual slide, the Amazon rain forest is approaching the tipping point, and the world science community has been sidelined by faithmongers in guiding US policy.

Now there are tapes. Just two, of course. They should have been preserved somehow, althouth being altered and remaining as primary evidence would be tricky... American agents, doing things to expose themselves to civil, criminal, or just plain honor-among-thieves justice, have been documented doing those things, those bad things. Yes, to a bad guy. Two bad guys. There are only two tapes. Ever.

I think (gulp) it's time to circle the wagons to stop letting the Bush team bury our international credibility and further fracture us as a nation. We're splintered now, and our allegiences are strained. Our economy is in the toilet, and our intelligence services have been beaten silly. We have to take the initiative to express our national interest pro-actively and say, "This failing has to stop. No further questions."

Ultimately, the Guantanamo detainees have to stand some kind of trial. Bush, et al, would prefer the olde-school methods of throwing them bound into a lake to see if they float. If the drown, they're innocent. These two tapes relate to two detainees? Only two? I suspect there is a body of circumstantial evidence against them. I think they can probably be put away Al Capone- style, using an unrelated charge to pack 'em away forever. And I know US prisons are hard to survive, although in that environment they may become new leaders.

But I think we should not allow this Executive cohort further damage us, expose our treasure and personnel, weaken further our international standings. We can come up with some way to punish this as a burocratic misdeed, and it probably warrants an obstruction charge- several. Or at least two. But let's not do it on the world stage. Let's get the initiative going to process Guantanamo first. The ground is too soft for a good footing, the tapes and their destruction have no independent standard. As the whole world is watching us work extra-constitutionally every day, let them see us dedicate ourselves to fixing it from within.