With respect to courts and evidence: | And one of the points that you raised a moment ago was on | "standards of evidence" where that evidence needs to be collected | in a war zone by our combat troops, doesn't it?
Bill, as far as I know, nobody is claiming that evidence collected by soldiers on the battlefield has to meet civilian standards of evidence collection. The court case makes clear though, that the government merely saying something is true is not sufficient to hold someone for six years without trial or lawyers. The government has to either follow the standard for military tribunals or ask congress to pass a law. Palin comparing this to miranda rights is intellectually dishonest.
As for the torture issue, you do not torture people for many reasons, but reciprocity is not really among them. You do not torture because it is ineffective, you do not torture because it is wrong, you do not torture because it does not really work. If others torture your troops, responding in kind does not help. We do not give people the protections of the Geneva convention because we expect them to behave by it, we do it because it is good policy to not torture. McCain was in favor of not torturing people as recently as 18 months ago.
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timeasmymeasure
So how far down the slope do we become what we fight against?
Date: 2008-09-04 04:23 pm (UTC)With respect to courts and evidence:
| And one of the points that you raised a moment ago was on
| "standards of evidence" where that evidence needs to be collected
| in a war zone by our combat troops, doesn't it?
Bill, as far as I know, nobody is claiming that evidence collected by soldiers on the battlefield has to meet civilian standards of evidence collection. The court case makes clear though, that the government merely saying something is true is not sufficient to hold someone for six years without trial or lawyers. The government has to either follow the standard for military tribunals or ask congress to pass a law. Palin comparing this to miranda rights is intellectually dishonest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062900928.html
As for the torture issue, you do not torture people for many reasons, but reciprocity is not really among them. You do not torture because it is ineffective, you do not torture because it is wrong, you do not torture because it does not really work. If others torture your troops, responding in kind does not help. We do not give people the protections of the Geneva convention because we expect them to behave by it, we do it because it is good policy to not torture. McCain was in favor of not torturing people as recently as 18 months ago.