UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? OR ROPE-A-DOPE? Al Qaeda suspects were sent to Guantanamo. There was lots of condemnation, before it turned out the place is Club Med. Now, very quietly, Al Qaeda suspects are being sent to Arab countries where the conditions are decidedly un-Club Med-like. But there’s not much complaint since (1) the Guantanamo fracas used the story up; and (2) human rights groups and Euro-government types aren’t willing to make as much noise about the practices of Arab countries.

So is this state of affairs an unintended consequence of making too big a deal about Guantanamo? Or was the whole Guantanamo brouhaha a giant sucker play on the part of the Pentagon — one that worked?