Obama's Gitmo Plan? Call It the 'Dorothy Doctrine'

Krauthammer: President thinks he can wish terror problems away
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 31, 2013 12:09 PM CDT
Obama's Gitmo Plan? Call It the 'Dorothy Doctrine'
President Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House Friday.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Obama thinks he can declare an end to the war on terror by simply wishing it away, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. He "would like to close his eyes, click his heels three times," and, poof, problem solved. The rub is that jihadism isn't receding—only America is, under this president, declares Krauthammer. And nowhere is this click-your-heels "Dorothy Doctrine" more evident than in Obama's plan to shut down Guantanamo Bay.

Obama himself acknowledged that the US will face a problem regarding detainees who have participated in actual attacks or plots but can't be prosecuted for various reasons. What happens to them? Obama's answer, after more than four years: "I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved." In other words, he has no answer, "because there is none," writes Krauthammer. "Hence the need for Gitmo." In normal wars, prisoners are repatriated. But this isn't a normal war, and it's not ending no matter how hard the president wishes. "There is no solution to indefinite detention when the detainees are committed to indefinite war." Click for Krauthammer's full column. (More President Obama stories.)

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