Posted on 02/22/2006 5:25:22 AM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Has he had an awakening to become a Neo-con?
Nope
Just his Spidey-sense telling him he is in the crosshairs in the WOT.
"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."
Great -- I've thought it was troubling for conservatives to fall for this "you can't be too careful" policy garbage, but when liberals start boosting it, we're all in real danger.
"'The right of natural defense carries along with it sometimes the necessity of attacking; as, for instance, when one nation sees that a continuance of peace will enable another to destroy her, and that to attack that nation instantly is the only way to prevent her own destruction.'" --Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book, citing Montesquieu from his Spirit of Laws, X,c.2.
Minority Report bump!
I had a change of heart about him, too, after reading his book The Case for Israel. Now I can at least respect and listen to his liberal opinions, even though I may not agree with them all that often.
I thought it was so they wouldn't get their cars towed.......
Dershowitz is really full of sh!t on this issue. A law professor who advocates "preventive detention, anticipatory mass inoculation, prior restraint of dangerous speech, targeted extrajudicial executions of terrorists and preemptive military action including full-scale preventive war" on one hand, after having publicly stated in the past that he wants the Second Amendment repealed, is not to be trusted.
Hilde has nothing on the senior senator from NY though. Ole Chuckie can blow with the best of em. Just think of all that hot air blowing around in NY these days!! It's a wonder it ever snows up here anymore.
I haven't seen that, but if he has that's a perfectly sound position. If you want to rid the country of gunowners, you amend the Constitution, you don't pretend it's not an individual right. Same with Roe/Wade, supporting an amendment from either side is appropriate.
Always interesting to see how people respond when their ox (Israel) gets gored. - tom
The statement was meant to show his undying support for anything Klintoon. He may be angling for the Attorney General spot in the Beast's administration.......
Alan has also weighed in on the ouster of Harvard President Larry Summers. He vehemently opposed the move to oust an eminent scholar and former Secretary of the Treasury for being politically incorrect. On rare occasions leopards do loose their spots.
But I'll stand by my original comment (with a slight modification to reflect yours). Anyone who wants to rid the country of gunowners -- even through perfectly legal means -- can't possibly be trusted when it comes to things like preventive detention, prior restraints of dangerous speech, etc.
I'd like to see Mr. Dershowitz spend five years getting run through every extra-legal process he's advocating here. Then we'll see how much enthusiasm he has for them.
Israel has been getting gored for decades. His speaking out on these issues are largely post 9/11.
A pity, since he'd be a shoo-in (assuming that the GOP stuck to its position that the President is entitled to his appointments unless there is a clear reason to consider them unqualified).
Haven't read the book. Of the issues in the first paragraph, the devil is in the details, I might not have any problems with some level of most.
He may have I heard he was seen entering the secret Neo Con lair hidden under the American Niagra Falls.
Quote: "Alan Dershowitz has been full of surprises regarding the WOT."
Its called intellectual honesty. Dershowitz is a rabid defender of civil rights, yet he understands that those rights do not exist in a vacuum. I believe it was Lincoln who stated that the Constitution was not a suicide pact. In this book it appears that Dershowitz realizes this and is arguing that our freedoms would not exist without the ability to secure them. Bravo!!
The majority of the country is not conservative. At best 35% is with only about a third of those as conservative FR.
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