A host of Americans, from Jimmy Carter to Sen. Joe Biden to Sen. Mel Martinez, have called for shutting down Guantanamo

A host of Americans, from Jimmy Carter to Sen. Joe Biden to Sen. Mel Martinez, have called for shutting down Guantanamo. While they do not agree with Amnesty International that the facility is the modern Gulag, they consider it a national embarrassment. Carter, who is not embarrassed to be the despots' toilet brush, is a hopeless case.

The other gentlemen must get a grip. Guantanamo is the focus of critical reports, in part because it is Qaeda strategy to claim mistreatment. The Koran is better treated there than the Ten Commandments in American schoolrooms. We must keep prisoners somewhere; shall we let all the terror suspects go? The American assault on Guantanamo is a species of selfhating insanity. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney have been defending our record, but this case has to be made, and closed, by the president.