We The People

by digby


Former Bush OLC lawyer and legal scholar Jack Goldsmith tells us matter of factly that if people insist that the government follow specific laws and the constitution that it will just find other ways to do exactly what it wants to do. Evidently, when it comes to national security there literally is no stopping them. It's just a given that in order to "keep us safe" they simply must torture and imprison people without due process and that's just the way it is. They'll just employ other countries to do the dirty work and they'll imprison whomever they choose inside the war zone in Afghanistan so as to circumvent the laws that have been put in place for Gitmo.

But he's against it:

It is tempting to say that we should end this pattern and raise standards everywhere. Perhaps we should extend habeas corpus globally, eliminate targeted killing and cease cooperating with intelligence services from countries that have poor human rights records. This sentiment, however, is unrealistic. The imperative to stop the terrorists is not going away. The government will find and exploit legal loopholes to ensure it can keep up our defenses.

This approach to detention policy reflects a sharp disjunction between the public's view of the terrorist threat and the government's. After nearly eight years without a follow-up attack, the public (or at least an influential sliver) is growing doubtful about the threat of terrorism and skeptical about using the lower-than-normal standards of wartime justice.

The government, however, sees the terrorist threat every day and is under enormous pressure to keep the country safe. When one of its approaches to terrorist incapacitation becomes too costly legally or politically, it shifts to others that raise fewer legal and political problems. This doesn't increase our safety or help the terrorists. But it does make us feel better about ourselves.


Silly citizens, thinking you have some say in these things. Don't worry your pretty little heads about any of this because even if you do, it won't make a difference. "The government" does what it needs to do no matter how many laws you pass or how many court decisions are made. They know everything and they know what's best.

By the way, when do you suppose those WMD are going to turn up?


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