I thought the last post was pretty clear about whether I agreed with using military tribunals to mete out punishment to people who might well be ‘terrorists’ but who couldn’t be accused of any specific and definable crime. But I’ve gotten a few emails asking. So apparently it wasn’t as clear as I thought.
The short answer is, ‘no’ I don’t agree with it.
But if readers noted a tinge of ambivalence in what I wrote, it’s because I think the problem is a serious one. What do we do if hundreds of hardened, bin Laden-worshipping Al Qaeda fighters fall into our hands? And what if we don’t have any evidence of specific crimes they’ve committed? What do we do? Just send them on their way? That hardly seems wise. Especially given all the trouble, carnage and expense we’ve undertaken to destroy Al Qaeda.
But it’s a question we may soon have to confront.
That’s a real dilemma and I’m not sure what the solution is. I just don’t think hiding whatever we decide to do with them behind the cloak of non-rule of law, drumhead courts is the way to proceed. But since this is the only situation in which military tribunals would seem to be highly useful, I speculated that this exigency might be precisely what they’re intended for.
And by the way, here’s another rock-solid column by Bill Safire on the military tribunal question. It turns out the trial of those Nazi saboteurs so frequently mentioned in defense of the Bush order may actually be an object lesson in why military tribunals are not such a hot idea. And by the way, if my recollection serves, the Nazi saboteur Safire mentions – the one who turned the crew in – was one of the two who escaped the chair. I think he got life. Which under the circumstances actually seems a bit harsh.
