President Obama’s one-year deadline to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is fast approaching. The president and his ideological brethren often claim that Gitmo must be shut down because its very existence imperils American lives. The president even made the preposterous claim that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula formed largely because of Gitmo. The American people soundly reject this analysis (siding instead with former Vice President Cheney), yet the administration doggedly presses on with its new policy.

Reality has a nasty habit of mercilessly cutting through political spin — whether it’s pontification about “our values,” or lectures on “false choices.” The near-miss Christmas Day terror plot has once again focused the nation’s collective mind on the ongoing terrorist threat. The facts (radicalized Muslims want to kill us) make the administration’s platitudes (“man-made disasters”) and policies (close Gitmo, ban effective enhanced interrogation techniques) seem trivial and reckless.

Obama insists that his leadership will enhance our national security. To that supposed end, his administration has decided to (a) close the safe, effective terrorist prison in Cuba; (b) transfer dozens of detainees to U.S. soil, affording them a panoply of new rights — and in some cases, civilian trials; and (c) repatriate other detainees to foreign nations for release, “rehabilitation,” etc. (In fairness, the repatriation process started during the previous administration, cheered at every step by the Left).

Setting aside the president’s soaring, Kumbaya rhetoric and reassuring promises, what are the true consequences of his actions? Two headlines from the current news cycle illustrate the stark reality:

Freed Guantanamo Inmates Are Heading to Yemen to Al-Qaeda Fight
At least a dozen former Guantánamo Bay inmates have rejoined al-Qaeda to fight in Yemen, The Times has learnt, amid growing concern over the ability of the country’s Government to accept almost 100 more former inmates from the detention centre.
The Obama Administration promised to close the Guantánamo facility by January 22, a deadline that it will be unable to meet. The 91 Yemeni prisoners in Guantánamo make up the largest national contingent among the 198 being held.

The administration now says they’re indefinitely pausing detainee transfers to Yemen — after weeks of insisting otherwise. Incoherence.

Security for Trial of 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad Would Cost $200 Million Per Year
The NYPD’s newly revised projection is almost triple the estimate of $75 million in November, after Attorney General Eric Holder announced he would move the prisoners from Guantanamo to Manhattan for trial.

Decisions based upon political calculations bear real-world results. The U.S. government is releasing dangerous zealots who’ve immediately resumed plotting its citizens’ demise. It has chosen to treat hardened jihadists like common criminals. And it’s asking its citizens to foot the bill for these needless exercises in political correctness — in dollars, and, perhaps one day, in blood. These are frightening and maddening realities that cannot be swept away by press conferences, Sunday morning talk-show soundbytes, or hyped speeches.