Bushy Went a Courtin'
June 30,2006

... and he did right, uh, huh.

So, did you read the Supreme Court decision on Guantanamo military courts? Yes, all of them. Scalia was oddly practical is his assertion that the court’s opinions were a “mess.” The High Court decision added to this already hysterical mess that is the war on terror.

In short, the court ruled that Bush cannot arbitrarily create new institutions of justice to meet his whims. If you listened to talk radio today, you’d think the court just mandated a “terrorist bill of rights.” In reality, all the court did was mandate that the prosecution and punishment of militants must adhere to some code or set of laws. What code or laws? Who knows? According to the majority opinion, Congress needs to decide. God help us.

The court was correct to demand that Bush point to some standard other than his own. PurpleThinkers see this need as well. We are a nation of laws and any act that inhibits the liberty of another human being must be subject to an objective standard. The problem arises in what the court didn’t do. Justice Stevens made this whole thing a bigger mess by writing,

“It bears emphasizing that Hamdan does not challenge, and we do not today address, the Government’s power to detain him for the duration of active hostilities in order to prevent such harm.”

In other words, the court’s ruling has the unintended affect of sanctioning the detention of these militants – forever. The “duration of active hostilities” may be tens of years. As Bush loves to comment, the war on terror is a different kind of war. There likely will never be an official truce among factions. Thus, the war’s over when the president says it’s over. And, what president is likely to ever say the threat of terrorism is over?

And so, the end result is that Bush gets official support for holding militants for as long as he damn well pleases. Perhaps this was the intent all along. Bush can now claim he wanted to provide a “day in court” but that now the baton has been passed and nothing can be done until congress acts.

At least the Supreme Court offered a way out. As painful as it will be, Congress needs to enact rules of engagement for this new kind of warfare. We made the same point about wiretapping – Bush’s actions may be right and warranted, but his actions must be sanctioned through our system of checks and balances as the law of the land. The Constitution demands it.

Just do it quickly – please!

|

 

Home|epinion|Purple People Eater

Feedback@PurpleThink.com

©2006 PurpleThink.com