We're killing off what sets us apart ... liberty
The balance of individual freedom against national security is at great risk of being permanently altered, writes Andrew Sullivan
November 14, 2005
IN a telegram on November 21, 1943, Winston Churchill defined a fundamental difference between the Anglo-American way and that of their enemies.
Churchill wrote: "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or communist."
This is never an easy balance, of course. In the fog of conflict, we make mistakes.
Executives invariably overreach in prosecuting wars and have done so in both the US and Britain (The Guardian claimed on the weekend that SS prisoners were tortured at a secret London centre during World War II).
Our system -- of habeas corpus, executive powers subject to legislative and judicial checks, and free speech to air the issues -- is specifically designed to correct such errors. That is its beauty -- and its strength. It gives us a flexibility in war that dictators lack.
It makes our war-making more, not less, effective. At its deepest level, it is what distinguishes us from Saddam Hussein, the Taliban and the Islamist bombers we face today, just as it distinguished us from the Nazis and communists.
Those of us who believe in fighting the war on terror need not regard civil liberties as somehow a sign of unseriousness in wartime.
Protecting liberty at home is critical to winning the wider conflict, especially in the larger battle of ideas that will ensure ultimate victory or defeat. >>>cont
Link Here
November 14, 2005
IN a telegram on November 21, 1943, Winston Churchill defined a fundamental difference between the Anglo-American way and that of their enemies.
Churchill wrote: "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or communist."
This is never an easy balance, of course. In the fog of conflict, we make mistakes.
Executives invariably overreach in prosecuting wars and have done so in both the US and Britain (The Guardian claimed on the weekend that SS prisoners were tortured at a secret London centre during World War II).
Our system -- of habeas corpus, executive powers subject to legislative and judicial checks, and free speech to air the issues -- is specifically designed to correct such errors. That is its beauty -- and its strength. It gives us a flexibility in war that dictators lack.
It makes our war-making more, not less, effective. At its deepest level, it is what distinguishes us from Saddam Hussein, the Taliban and the Islamist bombers we face today, just as it distinguished us from the Nazis and communists.
Those of us who believe in fighting the war on terror need not regard civil liberties as somehow a sign of unseriousness in wartime.
Protecting liberty at home is critical to winning the wider conflict, especially in the larger battle of ideas that will ensure ultimate victory or defeat. >>>cont
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 9:25 AM
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