Palin on Justice

[beamjockey]

I heard Governor Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention last night.

At one point, she listed contrasts between Senator McCain and "our opponent."

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

And then she said:

Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights.

This was met with cheers from the assembled Republicans.

I was disturbed.

Is Gov. Palin opposed to reading criminals their rights? Is McCain?

Comments

So how far down the slope do we become what we fight against?

[techgrrl.livejournal.com]

There are two separate issues in this thread:

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.

Re: So how far down the slope do we become what we fight against?

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I'm not actually disagreeing with anything you said above, but I have one quibble. You say but reciprocity is not really among them.

I have to believe there is some benefit to "the moral high ground" -- when it is legitimate.

Agreed -- we shouldn't not-torture to keep people from torturing us, as that MIGHT not work,
But (1) if we do torture, doesn't that make it more likely that torture will be used against us in the future? and (2) I don't know how to phrase this, but nowadays when I hear the "we're the good guys, so by definition we can do no wrong, so how could you _think_ of ..." spiel, I just hope that people think I'm a Canadian. Basically, by applying torture, I think we've thrown away out "bitchin' rights" for the future.