Why America is the greatest country in the entire world part two.
Headline from yesterday’s New York Times:
“Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts.”[1]
You tell me where else in the world terror suspects, people intent (allegedly) on destroying a nation, would be afforded the right to due to process by the very nation they are trying to destroy?
This ruling is the mark of a great nation (not a perfect nation; otherwise we would have never locked these people up for all these years without due process; just the best that actually exists in the world today. To read my first post on why America is the greatest country in the entire world click on the link noted below).[2]
Now some people, Justice Antonin Scalia among them, are afraid of this ruling.
My friends, we would all have reason to be afraid if this ruling had not taken place.
For what good is living in America if your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can be taken away by the government for years on end with no ability for you to know what you are charged with and have a chance to defend yourself?
Those are the type of tactics we went to Iraq to end.
Why would we allow them to happen here?
As Justice Kennedy appropriately declared: “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
Amen. That’s what makes America an extraordinary nation.
It is true that most of these regulations and laws only affected folks who were not American citizens.
But once you get used to the idea of denying anyone the right to due process it is a slippery slope to American citizens of “questionable” patriotic fervor being subjected to similar treatment.
The Bush Administration’s decision to deny the detainees at Guantánoma Bay and at other US secret prisons the right to due process in some reasonable amount of time cut to the heart of what makes America great: protection of individual liberties, even in tough times, from the capricious whims of government power.
The Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday is a victory for individual rights and America itself.
And there is no reason to be afraid.
No one is releasing “terrorists” into the streets and these people are not getting a get out of jail free card: trials will begin and those who are guilty will be punished (by death if necessary).
Justice Scalia predicted the ruling would “almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed” and that the decision was not based on principle “but rather an inflated notion of judicial supremacy.”
The latter count is utter nonsense: the principle at stake was nothing less than the right to due process guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
As to his former assertion, I believe it to be a fear tactic pure and simple: human life is very important and and so is our security. We must fight terrorism and defend ourselves vigorously.
But if the price of safety is the destruction of the very principles and freedoms that make us a great nation then I, for one, am with Patrick Henry, not Antonin Scalia.
Give me liberty or give me death!
[1]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin. All quotes are from this article.
[2] http://www.myreferenceframe.com/america/is-america-the-greatest-country-in-the-world
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“You tell me where else in the world terror suspects, people intent (allegedly) on destroying a nation, would be afforded the right to due to process by the very nation they are trying to destroy?”
Well, *anywhere* in Europe for a start. If not you have a right to an appeal in the european courts.
Where else in the world are people (doctors, engineers, students) with no evidence other than a single allegation against them kept in inhumane conditions for 6 years, tortured and kept from knowing what (if any) charges against them exist.
I can’t think of any off the top of my head other than the USA and North Korea, although maybe a few 3rd world countries come close too.
Actually most countries that face terrorism start having extra-judicial custody. India (where I’m from) has it, and I’m sure Israel and Sri Lanka have it too.
However, as pointed out with Olli, it’s ridiculous that Americans actually think that the due process of law happens in their country again. The fact that this is routinely mentioned, without discussion, so often in the American media, may be partly why most non-americans are suspicious of the ignorance of American masses.