The ACLU reviews the first year of Obama, and give him about an F+.  Maybe a D- if he whines to the professor.  So, another vote of meh.

The ACLU is a civil liberties organization, so their requests are a laundry list of civil liberties concerns.  Probably prudent: stick with what you know.  If one were to take a slightly more expansive view, one could accurately note that about 50% of the laundry listed is a direct result of our dirty little War On Terror.  From a strictly civil liberties point of view, Barack Obama has x discrete operational issues which he needs to resolve correctly, in a war context.  A better President might well get more boxes with ‘Yes’ in this context than Barack does – not FDR, probably, and perhaps not Lincoln, either, but one of those really great Presidents, like Washington or Voltron.  Perhaps.  Or perhaps the context is the problem.

“No justice, no peace!” they cry from the streets, and that is often, sadly, true.  Sometimes, you have to choose between pursuing justice and having peace.  People (Your Humble Editors included) often lament that Americans have no sense of history, that they forget how they got to where they are.  This is also true; a third true thing is that America has been a hugely successful nation over the course of the past 2+ centuries, a success due in no small part to domestic tranquility – not for the lack of grudges to hold, just for the lack of holding.  Abandoning the WOT would offend our sense of justice, and it would certainly be unjust for the perpetrators of 9/11 to escape punishment.  Our history tells us that this would not be the first time.  Living well, and free, may be a better revenge.

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