The End of the Innocence
Americans blindly accept that "everything changed on 9-11." But this inaccurate slogan cannot be justification for inexcusable American behavior and policies.
Nothing changed after 9-11. Except that Americans were brought into the world community, as they were exposed to a major terrorist attack on their home soil. Americans had been victims of international terrorism prior to 9-11. The only thing that changed was that the 9-11 attacks took place here, rather than over there.
Instead, the day everything changed was 9/28/06, the day Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, allowing torture, suspension of habeus corpus for terror suspects and the institution of military tribunals to take the place of civilian court trials. The day we institutionalized our hybrid construction--the combatant/criminal--who necessitates treatment outside of the normal bounds of criminal or military law. And this new law also applies to American citizens, lest we forget our own jeopardy.
800 years of Western legal thought was dismissed without a blink.
Nothing changed after 9-11. Except that Americans were brought into the world community, as they were exposed to a major terrorist attack on their home soil. Americans had been victims of international terrorism prior to 9-11. The only thing that changed was that the 9-11 attacks took place here, rather than over there.
Instead, the day everything changed was 9/28/06, the day Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, allowing torture, suspension of habeus corpus for terror suspects and the institution of military tribunals to take the place of civilian court trials. The day we institutionalized our hybrid construction--the combatant/criminal--who necessitates treatment outside of the normal bounds of criminal or military law. And this new law also applies to American citizens, lest we forget our own jeopardy.
800 years of Western legal thought was dismissed without a blink.
posted by rangeragainstwar at 1:23 PM
3 Comments:
When I was a kid I remember the saying that we wore the white hats. We were the good guys.
My senior drill instructor told us that we fight with honor.
What makes this threat so different that new rules have to be drawn up to fight it?
America is a great nation and we will set this right.
Semper Fi,
I am total agreement with you--this is a great country, and I do hope we get back on track, and it takes men like you for us to do so.
The three words used to be, duty, honor, country. In the Army, we were well-versed on the Geneva Convention and the rules of land warfare. In fact, we had to carry a G.C. card in our wallet, and we could not be deployed overseas without G.C. training.
Thanks for reading the site,
Jim
p.s.--I am Jim's editor, and am amazed and impressed by the sincerity and thoughtfulness of the veteran's responses that I've been exposed to.
Thank you for your service and your true patriotism. --Lisa
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