It is indeed a sad day when Giraldo Rivera is the voice of reason. But that's Fox News for you.
But, seriously folks, if the goal of terrorism is to inspire terror, then it seems to be working--at least over at Fox. Putting aside the most clearly irrational fear that, if terrorists are in NYC under lock and key, attending trial, they will somehow be able to cause--from sheer force of will--more terrorist attacks, let's focus on what I think is the more disturbing question: what if they're acquitted? It's nice to know that Fox has so little faith in the American system of justice that they believe it isn't capable of dealing with people as clearly guilty as KSM. It's almost funny (or at least it would be if it weren't so serious); after all, Fox and the rest of the Village's obsession with legal-political relativism is probably, in part, responsible for the undermining of faith in our legal institutions. They have, in effect, politicized the law.
All their hand-wringing over the mere possibility of legal proceedings against government officials who--it would seem--broke the law stems from their mistaken notion that to uphold the law (and prosecute tortures) is a political act on par with filibustering a bill or going on a talk show. The notion that a court makes findings of fact or tries to discover "the fact of the matter" seems utterly lost on them.
So, is it surprising that now, when there is a clear cut case of a crime and a remedy (judicial action), they treat it like political fodder, not an actual legal proceeding?
I'm not sure I'm articulating this part of my revulsion that well...
I'll let Glenzilla take you through the great irony of Republican manly-man-ness:
the Right's reaction to yesterday's announcement -- we're too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country -- is the textbook definition of "surrendering to terrorists." It's the same fear they've been spewing for years. As always, the Right's tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it's hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.
People in capitals all over the world have hosted trials of high-level terrorist suspects using their normal justice system. They didn't allow fear to drive them to build island-prisons or create special commissions to depart from their rules of justice. Spain held an open trial in Madrid for the individuals accused of that country's 2004 train bombings. The British put those accused of perpetrating the London subway bombings on trial right in their normal courthouse in London. Indonesia gave public trials using standard court procedures to the individuals who bombed a nightclub in Bali. India used a Mumbai courtroom to try the sole surviving terrorist who participated in the 2008 massacre of hundreds of residents. In Argentina, the Israelis captured Adolf Eichmann, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, and brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial for his crimes.
It's only America's Right that is too scared of the Terrorists -- or which exploits the fears of their followers -- to insist that no regular trials can be held and that "the safety and security of the American people" mean that we cannot even have them in our country to give them trials. As usual, it's the weakest and most frightened among us who rely on the most flamboyant, theatrical displays of "strength" and "courage" to hide what they really are. Then again, this is the same political movement whose "leaders" -- people like John Cornyn and Pat Roberts -- cowardly insisted that we must ignore the Constitution in order to stay alive: the exact antithesis of the core value on which the nation was founded. Given that, it's hardly surprising that they exude a level of fear of Terrorists that is unmatched virtually anywhere in the world. It is, however, noteworthy that the position they advocate -- it's too scary to have normal trials in our country of Terrorists -- is as pure a surrender to the Terrorists as it gets.
Yes, but liberals hate America, because we don't have any faith in the goodness of its institutions... or something.
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