Perverting our Constitution
November 14, 2009
ThinkProgress highlights an outrageous statement by Bill Kristol on Fox News about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings:
They should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death.
No presumption of innocence here, no deliberation about the evidence or sentence, just assume he’s guilty and execute him. It’s a perversion of the essence of American justice, of our Constitution.
This is the same logic that’s been applied by the Bush Administration to “enemy combatants” held at Guantanamo. No trial needed, we’ll just hold you for life. (Remember, we know that many of the men held for years at Guantanamo were innocent, as a former Bush Administration official has admitted.)
It’s frightening how much Americans have been willing to diminish the essence of what it means to be an American since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Changing the essence of America: That’s how bin Laden wins.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.” ~ Statesman and patriot Benjamin Franklin.
