President Barack Obama strutted into the Oval Office utterly convinced of his moral rectitude. Unlike his predecessors, Obama would make policy based on an exquisitely calibrated conscience, sensitivity to constitutional norms, and a capacious vision of international unity. Among his first official acts was to sign Executive Order 13492, calling for the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities to be closed within one year. Terrorists would henceforth be handled “in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.” The New York Times swooned.
He spoke for most of the Democratic party — certainly for the Left. The late Howard Zinn, whose People’s History of the United States is still widely assigned in American high schools and colleges, saw the War on Terror as yet another opportunity for American aggression. “Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country, for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home,” he wrote. “It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.”
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