Kruathammer: Giving KSM the rights of an American Citizen is Unconscionable.
The inevitable right wing noise machine has kicked into action, decrying Obama for treating KSM and others as "ordinary criminals". I notice that Kruathammer identifies "ordinary criminals" as burglars etc. Of course, ordinary criminals are sometimes serial killers, rapists, and worse. In Austria recently we had the case of Josef Fritzl, a man who kidnapped his own daughter and repeatedly raped her for years whilst keeping her locked in his own cellar. I know that this crime is much more serious than burglary, but the seriousness of the crime is reflected in the sentencing; the venue for the hearing - a court of law - does not change because some crimes are more horrific than others.
So, I am with Karl Levin, KSM should be treated like the common terrorist criminal that he is. Kruathammer appears to buy into the Republican notion that one can't be a criminal and a terrorist. As if the fact that KSM and others declared war on the United States gives them the powers of a state and elevates them above the position which I think they deserve, which is deluded narcissist.
Timothy McVeigh also declared a sort of war against his own country, but no-one argued that, as a terrorist, he must be treated outside of the United States legal system.
Individuals who declare war on country's are usually regarded as nutcases and tried in criminal courts.
Kruathammer and the Republicans seem determined to give these guys a status which they simply do not deserve. I find it truly baffling that they would wish to elevate these people into warriors.
UPDATE:
I am glad that Cenk feels the exact same way that I do about this. This has nothing to do with KSM, this is about American defining her values.
UPDATE II:
Booman has a very interesting theory as to why right wingers are so up in arms over all this.
The right is afraid that these folks will be convicted and sentenced to death for a crime that can proven without resorting to torture. And, then, what will be left of their justification for despoiling our country's reputation for upholding human rights?
Their continued expression of fear at the prospect of having these terrorists present on American soil is pathetic. They ought to spend the rest of their days huddling in their 1950's-built nuclear bombshelters. The only thing they fear more than terrorist attacks is having to face up to the pointlessness of what has been done with their support.
I think that is a very well made point.
2 comments:
This is much like the release of the Locherbie bomber on compassionate grounds, where the same crowd kept insisting that he did not "deserve" compassion, apparently not understanding that the "compassion" in this case has nothing to do with the criminal and everything to do with those granting it.
But then, this is also the same crowd that thought that whole concept of Rule of Law should only extend to those who are not actually in charge of keeping it (or their enemies). Such logical disconnnect ought to bar them from discussion here, but the agenda is set by those in charge of the media, rather than common sense.
Dave, it is Locherbie all over again.
But what offends me is their insistence that we buy into "terrorists as warriors."
I think Booman summed it up best. They are terrified that KSM will be convicted and that their pro-torture argument will be shown to be the ridiculous rubbish which we all know it is.
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