I'm trying not to lapse into conspiracy thinking with regard to the Guantanamo suicides; the problem is, I can imagine a conspiracy. What I mean is, obviously these are suicides, but I wonder if anyone in Washington would get the notion that it might be a good idea for Gitmo guards not to try all that hard to prevent inmate suicide attempts, on the assumption that deaths at Gitmo might inspire outrage among war critics -- which, in turn, would get the GOP base angry at all those dirty America-hating peaceniks, and remind them once again that the GOP and George W. Bush are on their side.

It's probably a silly and irresponsible notion -- here's a lawyer for one of the detainees, telling The New York Times that preventing self-harm is difficult in Gitmo:

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer representing Jumah Dossari, a Guantanamo inmate who has attempted suicide numerous times, said he had been told that guards were expected to keep close watch on prisoners, observing them every 30 seconds. But he said the procedures were difficult to follow in practice.

But I'll note that the following paragraph says this:

While visiting his client last November, he said he found Mr. Dossari in a bathroom trying to hang himself and slit his wrists. Even though a video camera had been installed in the bathroom, Mr. Colangelo-Bryan said guards did not respond until he called them.

And that's followed by this:

Though the Bush administration has been under pressure -- from the United Nations, European countries and the International Committee of the Red Cross -- about the Guantanamo detention center, White House officials did not indicate that they viewed the suicides as a major political problem.

Yeah, I bet they don't, and I don't just mean that they don't consider these people to have even the minimal human rights accorded Zacarias Moussaoui or the Unabomber. I mean that they may really want to get attacked by international human-rights organizations and American liberals and French people.

Look what's happened since the Haditha story broke: Bush's Gallup poll numbers have gone up 5 points (and that's before Zarqawi was killed), and Gallup tells us that the "gains are due largely to the increased support among Republicans." This is exactly what Karl Rove wants -- Republican voters returning to the fold. And I absolutely believe Haditha is a big part of the turnaround. The Haditha narrative that's getting out to the GOP rage junkies via talk radio and all the other usual suspects is that the America-haters are turning on the troops, libeling them to bring about America's defeat. Nothing gets the base's juices flowing like that kind of story. And now here's another one.

Maybe it's paranoid to suspect that Gitmo guards would be asked to look the other way while detainees killed themselves (although I can't help thinking about the way guards in U.S. prison seemed curiously unable to prevent the murders of, say, Jeffrey Dahmer or pedophile priest John Geoghan). At the very least, though, I think Karl Rove considers the Gitmo deaths a big win for his side.