Tribunals
A good comment from the USS CLUELESS about the value of military tribunals, especially when they are being used to try defendants who might tend to hold a grudge. Mr. Den Beste makes the point that American jurisprudence is geared toward protecting its citizens from the tyrannical abuse of power by our government, while military tribunals are concerned with determining guilt. As Americans, we are willing to accept that a few guilty citizens may occasionally go free as a price of our freedom. However, even if a guilty man goes free, there generally are ways American society can continue to monitor his behavior and insure he has less opportunity to commit further crimes. Not so with al Quaida.

The problem is that al Quaida’s actions are not one crime committed by one citizen. It is about multiple crimes committed by an organization engaged in armed opposition to the people of the United States. To attempt to use our criminal system to try combatants who are not citizens of this country, and who could care less about due process, is simply a muddleheaded attempt at pacification. We do not insure justice for society as a whole when we refuse to understand that criminal organizations have no intention of playing fair, or that military action against our people must be met with force. As long as organized criminal groups exist in any form, no matter if it al Quaida or the Mafia, they will continue to commit crimes regardless of the outcome of a trial. As long as there are people willing to take up arms against us, they will. Win, lose, or draw, they will be back, and they will be ready to laugh as they pull the trigger.

Can these organizations be fought as if they were just some guy accused of jacking hubcaps? Nope. Can they be fought at all? Yep. Of course, our past successes domestically in such cases has meant locking 'em up for tax evasion. Internationally, though, it would be difficult to surpass Nuremberg as a just example of what can be done to organized murderers.

Alas, one wonders if the Nuremberg trials could even be held in today's world. Maybe if columns of Islamic fundamentalists were marching down the Champs-Elysées we would hear less about how Europe has been forced to live with terrorism for so long, and America is only getting what it deserves. You know, Europe also managed to live with the Nazis for years, in the very same way in which they are living with Islamic terrorists now. The teat of appeasement finally ran dry, however, and the idea of allowing Hitler free rein didn't seem like too good of an idea in retrospect. Likewise, maniacal pseudo-religious anti-western sentiment will not die by itself, regardless of how much ransom money we throw its way, no matter how hard we try to be loved, no matter how many of our own innocent people we allow to be sacrificed.

Hey, folks, you don't want to live in terror? Get rid of terrorists.

posted by Terry at 2:40:00 PM