The illegal Bush administration is scrambling to make it possible to incarcerate someone that they label as a terrorist indefinitely without access to the courts. Permanently suspending the person's access to due process.
Now you may agree or disagree with that. I certainly don't like terrorist acts when they are perpetrated against me or my countrymen. And I don't like the people that commit them. They should get very strict punishment.
That being said, I realize that the term terrorist is subjective. What's the old saying? One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Some thought experiments for you.
Were the 9/11 hijackers terrorists?Are roadside bombers in Iraq terrorists?
Were the Washington DC snipers terrorists?
Were the Oklahoma city bombers terrorists?
Are abortion clinic bombers terrorists?
How about snipers that shoot doctors who perform abortions?
Terrorism, it's in the eye of the beholder. Terrorist, it's a subjective term. Before you get all giddy about how it's ok to torture a terrorist and how it's ok if we suspend them any right to be heard before a court, you may want to think about how the term terrorist can be applied broadly.
The secretary of education exclaimed after 9/11 that the teacher's union was run by terrorists. Bill O'Reilly calls the ACLU a terrorist organization. Perhaps we should ensure that laws we write and freedoms we suspend are based on actions and not labels.
Posted by jherr at January 5, 2005 02:52 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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