Friday, February 04, 2005
Go Away Joe
Lieberman yesterday regarding Gonzales, torture, and the Geneva conventions: "I think Judge Gonzales was being restrained and diplomatic in using the word “quaint” to offer these benefits -- access to a canteen to purchase food, soap and tobacco, a monthly advance of patience, the ability to have and consult personal financial accounts, the ability to receive scientific equipment, musical instruments or sports outfits. Giving these benefits to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned the attacks against us on September 11, wouldn't be quaint. It would be offensive. It would be ridiculous. It would be ultimately unjust."
Bottom line: If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not a combatant of a foreign government, or did not plan the attacks on behalf of a foreign government, then it may be correct that the Geneva conventions do not apply. If this is true, however, that automatically changes his classification to criminal suspect. Does the Bush Administration have so little confidence in our criminal justice system that they are afraid to bring this scum to trial? Aren't the American people, and all relatives of victims of the attacks, better served by seeing him tried, convicted, and sentenced, instead of vanishing into a mysterious black hole?
By creating this third category, neither enemy combatant nor criminal, the government is depriving the nation of the closure it needs.
This third category also creates a black hole that can swallow up innocents. If a mistake is made, what recourse does an innocent person caught mistakenly in the dragnet have? Furthermore, this begins the slippery slope toward a nightmarish system of gulags, that in the wrong hands, (and they're in the wrong hands right now) can be used on political opponents.
I can already hear the knucklehead trolls responding (and I've also heard Lieberman make statements to this effect): "Why do you care about the rights of terrorists? The 9/11 hijackers didn't respect our rights." My preemptive response is: Read more carefully boneheads, don't put words in my mouth I didn't say and try to lift your critical thinking skills above a seventh grade level. But then again, seventh grade critical thinking skills will get you a show on MSNBC or FOX, so what do I know?
Update:Joe Lieberman must really be doing a great job for his president, take a look at how thankful Bush is.
Bottom line: If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not a combatant of a foreign government, or did not plan the attacks on behalf of a foreign government, then it may be correct that the Geneva conventions do not apply. If this is true, however, that automatically changes his classification to criminal suspect. Does the Bush Administration have so little confidence in our criminal justice system that they are afraid to bring this scum to trial? Aren't the American people, and all relatives of victims of the attacks, better served by seeing him tried, convicted, and sentenced, instead of vanishing into a mysterious black hole?
By creating this third category, neither enemy combatant nor criminal, the government is depriving the nation of the closure it needs.
This third category also creates a black hole that can swallow up innocents. If a mistake is made, what recourse does an innocent person caught mistakenly in the dragnet have? Furthermore, this begins the slippery slope toward a nightmarish system of gulags, that in the wrong hands, (and they're in the wrong hands right now) can be used on political opponents.
I can already hear the knucklehead trolls responding (and I've also heard Lieberman make statements to this effect): "Why do you care about the rights of terrorists? The 9/11 hijackers didn't respect our rights." My preemptive response is: Read more carefully boneheads, don't put words in my mouth I didn't say and try to lift your critical thinking skills above a seventh grade level. But then again, seventh grade critical thinking skills will get you a show on MSNBC or FOX, so what do I know?
Update:Joe Lieberman must really be doing a great job for his president, take a look at how thankful Bush is.
