FEIN: Judgment at Guantanamo

I think Mr. Fein really needs to go to Georgia, Afghanistan and Pakistan to spread the word. He after all knows more than anyone else on the planet about the absolute of law. Hallowed be habeus corpus even if it kills you.

What a joke the Bush administration has become. After 7 years we got bin Laden's driver convicted. Bush's supporters have as much desire to look at the facts as they would stare into the midday sun. All that's left are ridiculous rhetorical devices like look to Georgia to understand....what is we're supposed to understand? Oh right..since war is brutal we have no need for hadeus corpus. So what if it's the foundation stone of a civilized legal system that has kept us free for over 2 centuries. There are bad guys in the world (wow soxconn did you just figure that one out?) and we need protecting so out the door with the legal system. After all these are real bad guys.

Mr. Fein places the "Judgement At Guantanamo" in the proper perspective. Notwithstanding his infamous passenger, at most Hamdan was a low-level foot soldier in Al Qaeda. Even though he was charged with serious crimes, his trial should have been assigned to the civilian courts, not reserved for an extraordinary military tribunal. Now, the Tribunal appears petty, and the conviction has trivialized the entire process. Perhaps the intent was to inaugurate the Tribunal with a quick, certain conviction. Instead, as Mr. Fein argues, more than anything else, what the Tribunal's conviction of Hamdan inaugurated was scepticism.

It's habeus corpus and I don't think our legal system can be credited to keeping us free for two centuries. It protects our right under the Constitution. Facing your accuser on the battlefield is usually with a weapon, not law book. My dad did not take Black's dictionary to fight World War II and the Korean War, my brother and I did not take one to fight the Vietnam conflict and my son did not take one to the Bosnian conflict. The statement is trivial and doesn't make sense. Bad guys in the world. Sounds like a movie title.

Never was much of a typist. By the way, nor did my grandfather in WWI (destroyer), my uncle in Korea (infantry), my father in the Cold War (B39), brother on a Boomer, and fortuantly no one was shooting when I enlisted. However the greatest threat to our freedom rarely comes from foreign enemies. The greatest danger is usually found at home in those who seek power. Our Constitution protects us from those dangers and the legal system is the foundation of our Constitution. It is imperative it not be trampled on, even in time of war. What does our nation stand for if not our Constitution? Are we just animals fighting for survival? American stands for more then just that.