Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 16:32:01 +0000 From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>
> > >So we should have gone to visit the homes of the dishwashers at
> > >Windows on the World killed on September 11, and told their wives,
> > >husbands, and children that "Because the United States is a rich and
> > >powerful country, it would be illegitimate to take any steps to
> > >force the Taliban to hand over those responsible for this atrocity,
> > >and illegitimate to take any steps to reduce Al-Qaeda's ability to
> > >commit a similar atrocity again?"
Max, "any steps" is one thing. War is another. Although my "score" in the political attitudes test is in the middle of the libertarian left, I am, as you know, on the "right" of the list, being an unabashed bourgeois liberal democrat. But it is _because_ I am a bourgeois liberal democrat that I have a fetishistic attachment to the rule of law, due process, and that sort of tedious stuff. The T offered to hand over try ObL if presented with evidence. We might have called them on it, but no, Bush said, "Hand 'em over, we don't negotiate, we know he's guilty." Maybe the T would have choked had we offered evidence, we'll never know. The fact is, that something had to be done, but not what we did. When a crime is committed, you don't flatten the suspect's neighborhood, even if his neighbors are bad guys. You follow the well-established rules for a criminal investigation. And you do that _whatever_ the bereaved may say, because we have law and not vendetta.
jks
(((((((((
CB: Yup. The legal argument isn't even close. The U.S. is , once again, the world's leading outlaw nation.
Make no mistake about it. The U.S. is following the principle of might makes right, and violating fundamental law.