23 Feb Scott Horton on Military Commissions
23.02.08
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Interested in learning more about the political farce that the military commissions have become? Run, don’t walk, to Scott Horton’s fantastic “The Great Guantanamo Puppet Theater” at Harpers.com. On these issues, Scott (like Marty Lederman) is always an invaluable read.
The military is always the “puppet” of our government and our nation. They have no choice. It is called civilian control of the military or civil-military relations. Scott apparently fails to realize that to the politically-appointed lawyers of this administration there is NO law, only politics. This is not unique to military commissions. It pertains to both domestic and international law. It also to pertains to both military and the DOJ. What Scott also doesn’t seem to realize is that Haynes is correct about the Gitmo commissions being the Nuremburg of our times. Nuremburg was just as political – a case of the victors punishing the losers. Nuremburg applied law that was only loosely based (if that) in any preexisting legal obligations under international law. While Nuremburg may have stood on a higher moral footing, its legal footing was just as shaky as the Gitmo commissions. We are due for another Nuremburg…but this time one based on law extant at the time the offenses were committed. My list of defendants would include Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzales, Haynes, and any other politico “lawyers” (and I use the “L” word very loosely because the are really just politicians with law degrees filling… Read more »