<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Justin wrote:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>> What planeta re you living on? That's a really bad example.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>There are no good examples because no state, large or small, is likely to attack the US any time soon. </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>> But yes, it makes a difference whether you are at war or dealing with a crime. The </DIV> <DIV>> laws of war of significantly looser than those governing criminal investigations. One </DIV> <DIV>> raeson is that states have resources criminal gangs don't.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Al Qaeda has resources many small states don't.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> </FONT>As far as I know you are proposing a novel amendment of the laws of war. The </DIV> <DIV>> main thing is this, which you do not seem to recognize. War is a very serious </DIV> <DIV>> business. In war, the govt claims the right to kill lots of people, destroy their </DIV> <DIV>> property, incur innocent casualties, set aside normal due process restraints, and so </DIV> <DIV>> forth. It was for that reason that the Constitution embodiesa  forgoten cloause stating > that only Congress has the power to declare war. A criminal act, even a very serious > one, ought not trigger the power oif the state to make war.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Scale matters.  A Declaration of War would be in order if a terrorist group committed the "crime" of killing everyone on Long Island, right?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>> This war is mainly an excuse for those things. It's not about al Qaida. And, frankly, > as a supporter of the war aaginst the Nazis, I suppose I think that anyone who </DIV> <DIV>> knows the horrors wars unlease has to accept the responsibility for having unleashed > them, even in a just cause. </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Knowing that any war is bound to unleash some horrors doesn't entail that we excuse all the horrors of a given war.</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>jks</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR> <HR SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!?<BR><A href="http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com">Yahoo! Mail Plus</A> - Powerful. Affordable. <A href="http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com">Sign up now</A></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>