|
|
The first paragraph is enough to convince me Steyn should be Secretary of State. |
Posted on 05/07/2006 6:17:09 AM PDT by xjcsa
May 7, 2006
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
"America, you lose," said Zacarias Moussaoui as he was led away from the court last week.
Hard to disagree. Not just because he'll be living a long life at taxpayers' expense. He'd have had a good stretch of that even if he'd been "sentenced to death," which in America means you now spend more years sitting on Death Row exhausting your appeals than the average "life" sentence in Europe. America "lost" for a more basic reason: turning a war into a court case and upgrading the enemy to a defendant ensures you pretty much lose however it turns out. And the notion, peddled by some sappy member of the ghastly 9/11 Commission on one of the cable yakfests last week, that jihadists around the world are marveling at the fairness of the U.S. justice system, is preposterous. The leisurely legal process Moussaoui enjoyed lasted longer than America's participation in the Second World War. Around the world, everybody's enjoying a grand old laugh at the U.S. justice system.
Except for Saddam Hussein, who must be regretting he fell into the hands of the Iraqi justice system. Nine out of 12 U.S. jurors agreed that the "emotional abuse" Moussaoui suffered as a child should be a mitigating factor. Saddam could claim the same but his jury isn't operating to the legal principles of the Oprahfonic Code. However, if we ever catch Mullah Omar or the elderly Adolf Hitler or pretty much anyone else we're at war with, they can all cite the same list of general grievances as Moussaoui.
He did, in that sense, hit the jackpot. We think of him as an "Islamic terrorist," an Arab, but he is, in fact, a product of the Western world: raised in France, radicalized in Britain, and now enjoying a long vacation in America. The taxpayers of the United Kingdom subsidized his jihad training while he was on welfare in London. Now the taxpayers of the United States will get to chip in, too.
On the afternoon of Sept. 11, as the Pentagon still burned, Donald Rumsfeld told the president, "This is not a criminal action. This is war."
That's still the distinction that matters. By contrast, after the 2005 London bombings, Boris Johnson, the Conservative member of Parliament, wrote a piece headlined "Just Don't Call It War." Johnson objected to the language of "war, whether military or cultural . . . Last week's bombs were placed not by martyrs nor by soldiers, but by criminals."
Sorry, but that's the way to lose. A narrowly focused "criminal" approach means entrusting the whole business to the state bureaucracy. The obvious problem with that is that it's mostly reactive: blow somewhere up, we'll seal it off, and detectives will investigate it as a crime scene, and we'll arrest someone, and give him legal representation, and five years later when the bombing's faded into memory we'll bring him to trial, and maybe conviction, and appeal of the conviction, and all the rest. A "criminal" approach gives terrorists all the rights of criminals, including the "Gee, Officer Krupke" defense: I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived. If you fight this thing as a law enforcement matter, Islamist welfare queens around the world will figure there's no downside to jihad: After all, you're living on public welfare in London plotting the downfall of the infidel. If it all goes horribly wrong, you'll be living on public welfare in Virginia, grandstanding through U.S. courtrooms for half a decade. What's to lose?
It's a very worn cliche to say that America is over-lawyered, but the extent of that truism only becomes clear when you realize how overwhelming is our culture's reflex to cover war as just another potential miscarriage-of-justice story. I was interested to see that the first instinct of the news shows to the verdict was to book some relative of the 9/11 families and ask whether they were satisfied with the result. That's not what happened that Tuesday morning. The thousands who were killed were not targeted as individuals. They died because they were American, not because somebody in a cave far away decided to kill Mrs. Smith. Their families have a unique claim to our sympathy and a grief we can never truly share, but they're not plaintiffs and war isn't a suit. It's not about "closure" for the victims; it's about victory for the nation. Try to imagine the bereaved in the London blitz demanding that the Germans responsible be brought before a British court.
Agreeing to fight the jihad with subpoenas is, in effect, a declaration that you're willing to plea bargain. Instead of a Churchillian "we will never surrender!", it's more of a "Well, the judge has thrown out the mass murder charges, but the DA says we can still nail him on mail fraud."
And, even if the defendant loses the case, does that mean the state wins? Here's an Associated Press story from a few weeks ago recounting yet another tremendous victory for the good guys in the war on terror:
"A Paris court fined the terrorist known as 'Carlos the Jackal' more than $6,000 Tuesday for saying in a French television interview that terror attacks sometimes were 'necessary.' The 56-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was convicted of defending terrorism. The court did not convict him for expressing pleasure that 'the Great Satan' -- the United States -- suffered the Sept. 11 attacks, saying those comments were his personal reaction."
That's right, folks. The French state brought a successful hate-speech prosecution against Carlos the Jackal, albeit not as successful as they wanted:
"Prosecutors asked for a fine four times larger than the $6,110 penalty imposed. But the judges said they did not see the need for a higher fine because Ramirez's comments referred to the past and aimed to justify his own actions. Ramirez, dressed in a red shirt and blue blazer, kissed the hand of his partner and lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, during the judgment."
Coming soon to a theater near you: The Day of the Jackal's Hate-Speech Appeal Hearing.
Copyright © Mark Steyn, 2006
The smartest thing he could do is to turn himself in to a nuetral country, if he can find one.
Spain ?? Italy ??? France ???? Canada ???? Germany ???
|
|
The first paragraph is enough to convince me Steyn should be Secretary of State. |
What he left out however is how the rest of the Muslim world (outside of the Western countries) will view this. From what I have seen so far it is viewed as weakness.
I was told just last evening by one of the locals here that "America fears the wrath of the Muslim world and this is the reason they can never ever attack Saudi Arabia"
Im sure the comments concerning the verdict of Moussaoui will be that we had to give him a civilian trial.
This verdict is going to haunt the United States in years to come.
I wrote this on my blog after the verdict ~
I hope to have a continuation of this up soon and give a perspective from where I sit, on how the Muslim world views the verdict on this trial.
I still remember arriving back in my home town a day or two after 9/11 and going to my home bar. A friend asked me.."Gary, you're the only one of us who has been in a war, why do you think they attacked us?" My response..I don't give a s..t why they attacked us, I just want them all dead.
Everyone there seemed to acknowledge that plan.
Is the War on Terror a real "war"? If so, how?
////////////////////////////////////////////////
No.......because "terror" isn't our real enemy.
moaning...
"We are still rounding up Nazis and bringing them to justice, but that bonehead Moussaoui jury had no stomach for justice. It's very disturbing."
For a number of years, I've believed that the American citizenry needs to have a seriously large War every generation to make sure the populace understands the reason why it's important to maintain and nurture freedom.
We haven't had a major war since WWII and just look at the results: the wimps doing the anti-war crap during the '60's ; "Hell no, we won't go"; the weenies protesting the military recruitments on campi around the country; the blantant anti-americanism in the universities and newspapers everywhere you look.
If I weren't an old fogie, I'd consider going back in just to kick some tush! I recommend a tour of 2, 3 or four years to all sorts of youngsters and they all think I'm nuts. That attitude is going to cost our country.
"I don't think Steyn is advocating anything. He is simply stating that Western Civilization has become so civilized that it can no longer deal effectively with barbarians. And if this inability continues, as it will, the West will inevitably fall to the barbarians as did the Roman Empire."
You stated that very well and very succinctly. I agree that Western Civilization has become too civilized vs. the "rest," - there is a gross imbalance. That gives the "rest" an advantage when they attack because we tend to just be way too understanding, seeking to understand "why," and not seeking a plan to bomb them back a millenium. As long as we, the West, are so understanding, the barbarians will continue to wreak havoc against what we hold near and dear.
You need to read up on military tribunals and US history.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
Nice reply to a real libertarian idiot
BJ Clinton showed us all what happens when you attack these guys with subpoenas.
There's still a big hole in New York City that's the result.
Shalom.
This war we are in now will take a long time to end the way we are "fighting" it. (for lack a better word)
It will end up being very costly in terms of life - I really don't see us getting on with it until a nuke goes off in one of our cities.
That day is fast approaching/
Why to go so far away in space as Spain, and so close as their Civil War in time?
How about staying in America, but have a look on the American Civil War?
Here is a quote for you, in which I took the liberty to change just one word, the last one:
Men, or squads of men, who commit hostilities, whether by fighting… or by raids of any kind, without commission, without being part and portion of the organized army, and without sharing continuously in the war, but who do so with intermittent return to their homes and avocation, or with occasional assumption of the semblance of peaceful pursuits, divesting themselves of the character or appearance soldiers – such men, or squads of men, are no public enemies, and, therefore, if captured, are not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, but shall be treated summarily as [terrorists].
General Orders No.100 of the United Stated Federal Army, Promulgated by President Lincoln on 24 April 1863.
How about staying in America, but have a look on the American Civil War?
From #30: . . . Franco's military tribunals were far more efficient than Lincoln's or FDR's. Less time between the bench and the firing squad (or garrote). :-)
Plus, there's a rather oddball, irrelevant reason I chose the Spanish Civil War. This discussion of military tribunals brought Hemmingway's A Farewell to Arms to mind. Sometimes, it is as simple as that. :-)
Thanks for the quotation from Lincolns General Order #100.
Girl, you are definitely sniffing the wrong dog run.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
