The End of an Era

[ProSense]

The End of an Era

guest post by Mash

Snip...

The Nuremburg Trials became the foundation for much of international criminal law that followed. Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1949 adoption of the Geneva Conventions owe much to the trials at Nuremburg. Beyond its legal ramifications, the trials were important in establishing the moral authority of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. That moral authority found its most powerful expression during the Cold War - there was never any doubt during the decades of struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States about who was on the right side of history. John F. Kennedy carried that authority when he asked the world to "come to Berlin"; Adlai Stevenson carried that authority when he demanded an answer from Soviet Ambassador Zorin at the U.N. Security Council; and, Ronald Reagan carried that authority when he asked Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."

During the 1990s, as Islamist extremism began to spread its claws over the globe, once again there was very little doubt that the United States was on the right side of this struggle and on the right side of history.

Then 9/11 happened. The entire world rallied to the side of the United States in the aftermath of the attacks. On September 12, 2001 the French publication Le Monde declared, "We are all Americans":

In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first thing that comes to mind is this: We are all Americans! We are all New Yorkers, just as surely as John F. Kennedy declared himself to be a Berliner in 1962 when he visited Berlin. Indeed, just as in the gravest moments of our own history, how can we not feel profound solidarity with those people, that country, the United States, to whom we are so close and to whom we owe our freedom, and therefore our solidarity?

The beacon of freedom, justice and liberty was attacked on September 11, 2001 and the world rallied in support. There was little doubt on September 12, 2001 that the United States would battle this extremism and come out victorious. There was little doubt that the United States would defeat this enemy and defend the ideals of freedom, liberty, and Justice Jackson's fairness.

That was then.

Snip...

Five years later we have seen the willful destruction of a nation and its people over a fictional casus belli; we have seen the kidnapping and disappearing of individuals by the United States of America under the absurd sounding phrase "extraordinary rendition"; we have seen the rise of a modern variation of the gulag archipelago as American run secret prisons began to blanket the globe; we have seen the all too familiar justifications for torture posited by legal minds untethered by a moral compass; we have seen the detention of innocents on made-up charges presented in kangaroo courts; we have seen American torture practices roundly criticized by international human rights bodies; and we have seen the American President, George W. Bush, blithely declare that "we do not torture."

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24557

[pat_k]

1. We have a week do it:: Kill the War Criminals Protection Act of 2006

The War Criminals Protection Act of 2006 has ONE goal -- to protect the War Criminals in the Executive Branch from prosecution for the war crimes they have committed (and continue to commit).

This is what we need to focus on to kill this thing. No modification of provisions, no modifying definitions, can touch the contemptable goal.

Every member of Congress who fails to unequivocally oppose the War Criminals Protection Act enables the War Criminals and becomes an accessory after the fact. Do our leaders really want become War Criminals themselves?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2844073&mesg_id=2844273

[zeemike]

3. That is it's proper name n/t

[pat_k]

4. If we use it in every communication on the subject. . .

. . .we can insert it into the noise machine.

Time is short, but small actions can have big ripple effects. (We never really know the effects of our actions -- so we just have to so what we can, however large or small.)

[zeemike]

5. War Criminals Protection Act. OK I'll use it every chance I get

[zeemike]

2. We are at the end of an era

And the new on is where our leaders have accepted the marxist principal that the end justifies the means.
And so many are blind or asleep or have been Mesmerized.

[No Exit]

6. Today's citizen is tomorrow's "terrorist" defendant.

And they can't even see that. Don't they understand that what the government legalizes can be used against THEM? "Oh, well, I never break the law!" they say. Yeah, fine, but does that also go for: your loony father-in-law, your wayward son, your wife's mental case aunt, your naive daughter? Somewhere in your family, there is someone who is not nearly as careful as YOU are.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[BeFree]

7. Well....

...it was nice while it lasted... you know, all the respect for what America stood for and what our soldiers died for and what my dad served for and so many other fathers, sons, daughters and true believers believed for so long, that America was better than that and that America would never condone the types of things other countries did to considered enemies because we treated people like we wanted to be treated, but all that is gone now washed in the blood of the dungeons of torture that America has spread across the face of the earth, and why did we do it - unleash this blood curdling stream of violations on simple human decencies?

Because we could.

Because an unelected madman decided for us that our country didn't need to be better. It was nice while it lasted.

[Odin2005]

8. America is commiting suicide.

There is no better way for a state to annihilate itself then by Millitarism. History is litterted by examples; Assyria, Sassinid Persia, Nazi Germany, Napleonic France, etc.