Thank You, Sarah Palin
This is rare, but I have to give Sarah Palin thanks, for essentializing the heart of the argument against giving a fair trial to the terrorists we've caught, and the suspected terrorists we've apprehended. Thank you, Sarah Palin, for tearing away the pretty window-dressing, and leaving it with just this: terrorists are not worthy of the constitutional rights we enjoy.
I paraphrased, because I heard her say it on Fox News, and I'm not bothering to hunt down a transcript.
No one has given the bare bones of this argument before, because it's then very easy to show why it fails. If justice could be found by privileging Americans over non-Americans, I suppose I would applaud it. Finding out the truth would be as easy as finding an American, and getting him or her to contradict a foreigner. God, that would be easy.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that by holding a fair trial, we get justice. I don't give a crap about what the terrorist gets out of the experience.
I really, really want to catch the right people. Unless we give the suspects full access to lawyers, the right to be shown the evidence against them, and the right to be confronted by their accusers, then we won't know if we caught the person who did it.
I paraphrased, because I heard her say it on Fox News, and I'm not bothering to hunt down a transcript.
No one has given the bare bones of this argument before, because it's then very easy to show why it fails. If justice could be found by privileging Americans over non-Americans, I suppose I would applaud it. Finding out the truth would be as easy as finding an American, and getting him or her to contradict a foreigner. God, that would be easy.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that by holding a fair trial, we get justice. I don't give a crap about what the terrorist gets out of the experience.
I really, really want to catch the right people. Unless we give the suspects full access to lawyers, the right to be shown the evidence against them, and the right to be confronted by their accusers, then we won't know if we caught the person who did it.