Desperate measures from desperate men

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1266.shtml

<snip>

And I might add, for desperate times. I’m talking about the US Senate passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that discards key human rights protections. This is an act of a desperate president, seeking to rally support for his failed and brutal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, by further rallying the spineless and frightened Congress round the flag. The more Bush is cornered by failure, the more he goes on the attack and flails fearful legislators with the loss of their jobs if they’re not patriotic enough.

He also rips at the human and legal rights of "alien unlawful enemy combatants." First of all, this handle for the detainees allows Congress to rush to legislate on whether to bring them to trial or -- not. It is the “not” that is knotty. Because it means that a detainee can be allowed to rot indefinitely in some randomly assigned hellhole, deprived of his Geneva Conventions rights as “prisoners of war,” which is what they are, despite the sophistry of calling them “alien unlawful enemy combatants.”

Are they not said or suspected to be enemies in the War on Terror? If so, they are prisoners of that war.

What’s more, the president and his administration don’t inspire confidence as to their loyalty to define these categories accurately. Enemies of the government can be termed also as those who don’t “support” America. Millions of American citizens who don’t support many of these egregious policies can potentially get swept off the streets like old newspapers. Nazi Germany gives you a dishonorable but apt example, Stalinist Russia as well, not to mention the backwaters of Caspian Basin nations currently inflicting terror for a fee on all drop-off prisoners...

[nam78_two]

1. kick/nt

[yurbud]

2. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (PIC)

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

3. Good stuff!!!

[unhappycamper]

4. I think John Singleton Copley would approve of that message. n/t