The events sparked a debate on CNN last night, prompting former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to defend his former boss’s decision to open Gitmo to begin with. “We have it because these people did not even follow the law of war, let alone the rule of war,” he said, adding, “These people didn’t even wear a military uniform. They engaged in battle against America as terrorists, a violation of the laws of war. That’s why Guantanamo got invented.”
But most legal experts say detention practices at Gitmo violate international law.
“This country fought Adolf Hitler. And I don’t really believe that Osama bin Laden and his group are worse or more dangerous than Adolf Hitler,” CNN legal expert Jeffery Toobin countered Fleischer, adding, “We managed to defeat Adolf Hitler by following the rule of law.”
Free advice: He's a bad guy.
Backed in a corner, Fleischer then went a bit off the rail:
FLEISCHER: They [the Germans] followed the law of war. They wore uniforms and they fought us on battlefields. These people are fundamentally, totally by design different. And they need to be treated in a different extrajudicial system.
Oh sure, a snappy uniform makes all the difference, Ari. Jesus wept. Jackass.
"Oh sure, a snappy uniform makes all the difference, Ari."
ReplyDeleteDidn't the Germans use fake U.S. uniforms on special forces in the Battle of the Bulge?
And don't get me started on the rules of war and the treatment of civilians and noncombatants.
If we're going to defend American Exceptionalism, it isn't good enough to simply fight evil with evil - if the bad guys don't follow the rule of law, we must break more international laws and be more evil than they are. USA #1!!!
ReplyDelete