Pat Lang asks a simple question:
“I was ordered to…” has been a a discredited and unacceptable basis for a defense in war crimes trial since the trials of the Nazis at Nuremberg. “Things were tough…” is an equally discredited defense.
What are we saying? Is it our position that international law applies to eveyone but us and that it does not apply to us because we are “special?”
Are we that childish?
Well, no, we’re not that childish. But our chattering class is.
Over at dkos, NCrissieB has been doing a great series on torture and US exceptionalism.
Ideals vs. Destiny
America Does Not Torture
Never Again
Final installment is tomorrow morning on the incompatibility of democracy and secrecy.
C’mon we’ve ALWAYS been that childish. How many courts conventions and tribunals in the last 60 years have we refused to join for fear of being held accountable?
I don’t know. How many?
Damn tootin’.
A leader leads. In spite of FDR’s famous ‘make me do it’ statement, FDR lead. And he fought. Where is the fight in our guy? Where, if anywhere, will he draw a line? And take a stand?
count harry reid as childish:
unbelievable.
For some reason I have always seemed to settle on giving Harry just a little slack in his rope. Some might call it the benefit of the doubt.
Well, I believe with this statement that he made regarding Bybee, the end of what has been a very long rope has finally slipped through my fingers. There’s no more rope left.
Harry has to go. He just has to go.
i’ve been sayign that for years.
on my lunch break I’m callign up to ask why we have to wait and see given all the reports that have come out.
‘This point in time’. Are those words cringe-making? Or what?
Is it my imagination, or are there just a plethora of really, really depressing headlines today?
Just seems that way to me…….
.
Taliban Advance to within 60 Miles of Islamabad
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
I kinda like this comment to Pat Lang’s diary.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."“Is it our position that international law applies to eveyone but us and that it does not apply to us because we are ‘special?’“
The short answer is yes. Sadly, American exceptionalism is alive and well among “liberals” and “progressives”, it is just better hidden and more subtle – so much so that most “liberals” and “progressives” do not even recognize it in themselves. The bottom line is that very few Americans are capable of viewing with real respect other countries and the people in them. There is still a strong notion that the U.S. has not only the right, but the duty, to decide and impose on other countries how they should be governed, and on the people of other countries how they should live, organize their lives, and conduct themselves in the world.