All praise Prof. Alan Dershowitz

Jewish World Review ^ | 2-22-06 | Tony Blankley

[SJackson]

Next week a vastly important book will be published: "Preemption, A Knife That Cuts Both Ways" by Alan Dershowitz. Yes, that Alan Dershowitz: the very liberal civil libertarian, anti-capital punishment Harvard Law School professor. And but for my lack of his legal scholarship, there is nary a sentence in the book that I — a very conservative editor of the Washington Times, and former press secretary to Newt Gingrich — couldn't have written.

The premise of his book is that in this age of terror, there is a potential need for such devices as profiling, preventive detention, anticipatory mass inoculation, prior restraint of dangerous speech, targeted extrajudicial executions of terrorists and preemptive military action including full-scale preventive war.

In his own words, from his Introduction: "The shift from responding to past events to preventing future harms is part of one of the most significant but unnoticed trends in the world today. It challenges our traditional reliance on a model of human behavior that presupposes a rational person capable of being deterred by the threat of punishment. The classic theory of deterrence postulates a calculating evildoer who can evaluate the cost-benefits of proposed actions and will act — and forbear from acting — on the basis of these calculations. It also presupposes society's ability (and willingness) to withstand the blows we seek to deter and to use the visible punishment of those blows as threats capable of deterring future harms. These assumptions are now being widely questioned as the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of suicide terrorists becomes more realistic and as our ability to deter such harms by classic rational cost-benefit threats and promises becomes less realistic."

[saganite]

Sounds like Allan has come to recognize the insanity of Islam. Of course, since he's jewish, he's more attuned to their desire to destroy everything not Islamic.

[cripplecreek]

Alan Dershowitz has been full of surprises regarding the WOT.

[SJackson]

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[Anti-Bubba182]

No kidding, at times he actually sounds sane!

[LZ_Bayonet]

"The shift from responding to past events to preventing future harms is part of one of the most significant but unnoticed trends in the world today."

Translation: "A lot of boomers like me are getting old, and we have to start assuming there is a heaven and taking positions that will get us in there.

[Red Badger]

Has he become a NEO-Con?........

[conservativecorner]

I'm in on buying this book if for no other reason than to drive the loony left nuts when it hits the NY Times best seller list.

[billhilly]

"Has he become a NEO-Con?"

Just a con I think. He always tries to position himself where the wind blows most strongly.

[thoughtomator]

He's becoming a "Hitchens liberal", I think, on a slooooow curve. One of the few left-wingers who adjusted their worldview to accommodate the events of 9/11.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Has he become a NEO-Con?........"

Dershowitz, as liberal as he is believes in the rule of law. He knows that everything Bush is doing falls within the Constitution and he is not toeing the line of Liberal rhetoric. Dershowitz understands that this is a war.

If Bush was doing something illegal, Dershowitz would be on him like stink on poop. Because he isn't it can only mean Bush is right. And if Bush is right and Dershowitz knows this, then getting a book out and making a few dollars can't hurt. Especially if it is the truth and bnot another Richard Clarke fairy tale.

[Red Badger]

He always tries to position himself where the wind blows most strongly. That would be in front of The HildeBeast.........

[trisham]

"The shift from responding to past events to preventing future harms is part of one of the most significant but unnoticed trends in the world today. It challenges our traditional reliance on a model of human behavior that presupposes a rational person capable of being deterred by the threat of punishment. The classic theory of deterrence postulates a calculating evildoer who can evaluate the cost-benefits of proposed actions and will act — and forbear from acting — on the basis of these calculations

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I'm impressed. Prepare for the Left to throw Dershowitz under the bus.

[sono]

Funny - as soon as the GWOT got rolling, Alan Dershowitz ceased being one of Chris Matthews' "Go To Guys."

[Hatteras]

Congratulations to Dershowitz maybe, but "praise"? Perhaps in the sense that you would "praise" your dog for not peeing on the carpet. Throw him a doggie treat, but the majority of the country is conservative, he's just realizing what we knew all along.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Alan is a feather in the wind....with a law degree.

The one thing I've always genuinely respected about him is that he's the only liberal I've ever known has actually read The Federalist Papers.  

I believe he misinterprets them, but he's read them.

I've never talked with a liberal here in Seattle who even knows what The Federalist is.

[dennisw]

Props to Dersh my favorite egotist and favorite liberal! Go get 'em Dersh! I read his autobiography years ago and it's very good.

His autobiography

 

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From Publishers Weekly
Children of deposed kings, sovereign nation states, terrorist organizations, alleged witches-all have been targets, at some point in history, of preemptive action. Whether such action was justified whether the results were as intended and whether the political fallout was tolerable are the factors that complicate this alluring concept, as explored by Dershowitz. Though one might expect Dershowitz to capitalize on the obvious example of the invasion of Iraq (as illustrated by the cover photograph of smoke rising over the Tigris), Dershowitz focuses a good share of this cautious study on Israel, where the policy of preemption has been practiced for decades, to varying degrees of success. The country's 1967 strike against Egypt and Syria to begin the Six-Day War comes as close to perfect preemption as any event in recent history, but that success has proved difficult if not impossible to repeat. If this book is divisive, it's only because Dershowitz calls into question any hardline view, pro or con, of a practice that depends on circumstance and calculated risk-and even then hinges on what the public is willing to accept (profiling, assassinations, a nuclear strike) in the name of a safer tomorrow.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
When and how should democratic societies respond to potentially dangerous conduct before the conduct takes place? The latest book from this prolific defense lawyer and legal scholar examines preemptive war, preventative detention, and restrictions on dangerous speech, and claims that in the absence of general legal principles (or even a healthy debate) about preemptive action, society's current trend away from deterrence and toward prevention (as accelerated by the "war on terrorism") threatens longstanding notions of individual liberty and state sovereignty. Attempting to articulate the rudiments of a jurisprudence of prevention and preemption, Dershowitz considers the risk calculus applied by Israel in its various preventative wars and digs into his own previous research into the problematic mathematics of prediction. Although the subject matter dovetails nicely with Dershowitz's recent work on torture and terrorism, this account conspicuously avoids those works' polemics and admits that constructing a jurisprudence for a democracy is a daunting task not well served by narrow political stances. Yet perennially provocative Dershowitz sneaks in a punch or two, speculating aloud about the possibility of preemptive action against Iran's nuclear program and arguing that preemptive war in Iraq may have hindered preemptive action against that nation. Best read in conversation with Richard Posner's cost-benefit argument for prevention in Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004), this book is an academic and accessible framing of an important debate. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

[SJackson]

I'm impressed. Prepare for the Left to throw Dershowitz under the bus.

To some extent he's alienated himself over his 2nd Amendment and Roe/Wade opinions. Like Larry Tribe, even if he wanted to be, he wouldn't get a judicial appointment from a liberal administration.

[dennisw]

I'm impressed. Prepare for the Left to throw Dershowitz under the bus.

I think Dersh is so close to doing a Chris Hitchens

[billhilly]

Affirmative. The same position he held during her husbands eight years. The difference is, there are different rules for Democrats and Republicans in his mind.

Same reason Washington Post reporters have to park on K street and walk up 16th St to work. That way they never have to walk on the right side or the street. That's not really true. I made it up, but symbolically, it fits like a glove.