Posted on 12/05/2001 1:51:19 PM PST by Mean Daddy
The below letter to the editor was so well written, I thought I'd share it with my fellow freepers. If Mr. Moore isn't a Freeper, he should be.
Your editorial regarding trying terrorist suspects in military tribunals is flawed.
You started by saying, "There is nothing more important ... than ... civil liberties."
Wrong.
Life is more important. Civil liberties are meaningless to a dead man.
The founding fathers knew that placing life ahead of liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. If I'm killed in a terrorist attack, all the editorializing in the world about civil liberties is worthless to me.
Next, you emphasize that 1,100 detainees are "suspected" of being connected to terrorist groups or activities, as though "suspicion" is not sufficient to detain these people for further questioning and investigation.
Under our system of justice, proof of guilt or innocence isn't established until trial. Therefore, anyone held awaiting trial could logically be said to be only under suspicion of committing the crime charged. Would you have our jails emptied of all those awaiting trial simply because, while waiting, they are only "suspected" of a crime?
I thought not.
You then attempt to cast doubt on the military tribunal system, hinting that the panel of officers would vote to convict simply because they "see themselves as "at war" with the accused." This assertion impugns the motives of military officers and implies that they would run roughshod over the accused, regardless of the evidence, in order to obtain a "guilty" verdict.
As a former officer, such an assertion would not have applied to me or the vast majority of my fellow officers while I was on active duty, and I doubt it would apply now. To suggest otherwise, as you did, is wrong.
That terrorists would get any kind of trial at all in the United States is more than they would get in a lot of other countries and probably more than they deserve.
Trial by military tribunal is absolutely appropriate for them, does not jeopardize civil liberties for anyone else and is the best way to send a message to potential terrorists that they will be dealt with appropriately.
While I agree with the premise that Bush is within his rights as CIC and president in demanding military tribunals and detentions of "suspicious" people, many in this great land have died in defense of liberty, civil and otherwise.
Our neighbours, the living, have faced it alone and I am one dead person who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the people are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope dead people are not among these. But there are many smug, self-righteous corpses. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.
Gordon Sinclair, the famous dead Canadian has been giving this speech for thirty years. He's one corpse who's not afraid to speak up for liberty.
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Life without civil liberties is slavery...
Slavery makes life meaningless...
The guy who wrote the above doesn't have a clue...
That I have never been as proud to be a
member of FreeRepublic.com, as I am now.
Thanks for supporting Liberty and Freedom.
Yeah ... tell it to over 40 million dead Americans killed in our own abortuaries.
I like your response very much.
The company I work for recently abandoned drug testing for prospective employees. Now it is no longer possible to destroy someone's life by putting a little coke in their coke. Most of the legal shortcuts applauded by those who don't value their liberties are mechanisms for trampling on good people.
Criminals don't care if their rifle has a plastic pistol grip on it, but I have to store rifles in Nevada to avoid prison.
I have paid hundreds of dollars to prove numerous times to the government that I am not a convicted felon. There is no evidence that any crime has been avoided by this, but I risk my future if I engage in a private transfer of a firearm.
I believe very much in the benefits of the Constitution and it would clearly be better than whatever it is that the government is using now. (paraphasing the bumper sticker)
Yes gentlemen, I understand perfectly the difference between liberty as defined in natural law and "civil" liberties. And I would hope I'm at least your equal in rabid defense of our freedoms from government as defined in the Founding documents. But I deplore the despicable blurring of what I view as the intentions expressed in these documents for their own purposes by the ACLU, et. al.
I too am wary of infringements of any rights by the government but I agree with Mr. McGowan that suspension of some civil liberties during wartime is a small sacrifice in defense of the most basic right of all - that to live in freedom.
Like most, I don't favor the government getting any more power than it already has but in case no one has noticed, it's the only government we have to work with and our only real defense against terrorism, internal and external. Some of the arguments are based on pure speculation and the mistaken conviction that our military are bloodthirsty dictators who will rubber-stamp any foreigner as 'guilty'. A slur on our nations military men and women that I do not share. I also reject the premise that everyone and anyone will be suddenly arrested, thrown in prison and held forever because some nosy neighbor said 'That guy looks suspicious to me". I don't think the ever-vigilant ACLU and the massive liberal media establishment will waste a noansecond in shouting from the rooftops any misuse of the law.
I'm also mighty weary of being called naive, a statist or a Bush bootlicker simply because I support the President in his attempts to pursue the War on Terrorism. I'm none of the above but that seems to be the kind of nonsense the anti-Bush (excuse me, pro-constitutional - as if no one else can be) people instantly throw up as a rationale when anyone questions the fact that giving terrorists the full gamut of American Civil Liberties may not be in our best interest.
I've come to realize that, on FR at least, this is a truly divisive issue, akin to abortion. Democrats, Libertarians and ultra-rightists all howl loudly about the unfairness of it all and bemoan the 'blindness' of anyone who doesn't see it their way. Everyone stands on 'principle' and no one will give an inch.
Frankly, I'm tired of the argument but wanted to support the good folks who understand the Patriot Act provisions are in our national self-interest and don't want to follow the Democrat/Libertarian line.
Some of us think it's simply a good idea to use the defensive measures now in place through the Patriot Act to find, identify and remove terrorists from our midst whenever possible. Works for me.
You're willing to give up my civil liberties so you can live in freedom.
That's heavy man....
L
Extremely well put. I too am sick of defending myself for supporting an administration that I trust and believe in.
And I'm equally sick of being told that I'm naive because I believe in a two-party system that has well served the greatest nation on Earth for over two hundred years.
But I'm especially tired of being accused of not questioning authority because I support this president. If we Bush supporters were the sheeple we're constantly painted as being, we wouldn't be here at FR.
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