Treating Terrorists as Criminals
Both Darwin and Jamie have made this argument against me on several occasions. Here is a decent oped piece arguing against it.
Both Darwin and Jamie have made this argument against me on several occasions. Here is a decent oped piece arguing against it.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Just the opening paragraph makes him seem to disengenuous for me:
“Kidnappers rarely behead their victims without asking for a ransom. And when they do ask for ransoms, only rarely do they demand infidels submit to the will of Allah instead of asking for unmarked bills. ”
So we should treat all serial killers, who kidnap people only to kill them and often have religious delusions that they claim justify their actions, as terrorists?
He specifies alot of ways that terrorists are different from conventional criminals, but he doesn’t say much about why it hurts us to treat tehm as criminals. His only argument in that regard seemsto be that, if we treat them like real criminals, then suspected terrorists would be entitled to due process of the law, which clearly just is NOT the American Way.
He’s saying the same thing you’ve always said: He’s fine with people being abducted off teh street, tortured, and executed in secret, as long as those people aren’t US citizens. I’m just never going to be ok with that, even if a man in a military dress uniform tells me it’s for my own protection.