always scares me when people talk about a country as "her"
EVERY country, like every ship, is seen as feminine. You must be scared often.
freegeeks, Whether or not americans are better is up to each individual. I, for one, seem to think we are in cases such as judicial prudence and economics. European and east asian financial systems are inherently unfit for truly global competition (pure free trade). There are many reasons why and I won't go into them over here.
As for judicial review, over 99% of the people that go on trial in Japan are found guilty. There is something inherently wrong with that. In Britain, the equivalents of US supreme court justices sit in the nation's parliament, which means they make the laws that they have to interpret, which is a complete farce to me. In france, the judge is also the prosecutor, or something to that effect. Basically the prosecutor has too much power in France.
You labelling me a Nazi, as have happened a lot here is not surprising considering that you have nothing further to say on this topic. Simple responses from a simple man.
You're a neocon - of course *you* put US laws first over any other kind of justice, but in the minds of the 90% of the non-US world who's opinions matter, and in the case of the UK, have a greater than usual impact on relations, trade, strategic alliances, etc - when you mix in people as yourself with pre-determined "justice" in mind and a closed and potentially (read IMHO probably) corrupt military court procedure - and by that I mean as it stands right now we won't get to see the standard of proof given, mainly IMHO because it will be farcical, is it any wonder that a lot of people here in the UK stare incredibly skeptically about what's about to happen. They have very little faith in your ability to hold a fair trial under present proposals.
Call me whatever you want, but I am an American and our laws hold primacy over any other. The 90% of the non-us world don't hold any sway on our judicial opinions. They don't matter. when they become us citizens, then we can count their opinions. The UK may be a strong ally, but she is just that, an ally. As for international relations, we deal with situations on a case-by-case scenerio.
DON'T EVER try to corner us by putting everything in one basked and forcing us to choose one way or another.
And finally, many of these people were captured on Afghanistan soil. Some may not (that is what the trial is supposed to be about - if you even care I guess) have anything to with Al-Queda of 9/11 - but we may never know. Read that again - Afghanistan soil, so don't come the "American laws come first" - many of these people weren't even apprehended in the US!
Yes, they were caught in another part of the world. But they were caught because they were either in a war zone or they were caught in the terror nest. Either way, other nations don't get to pick and choose what they want and what they don't. Old international laws have to be reformed to catch up with the times. The Geneva Convention never envisioned suicidal followers of an ethereal phantom, hence they never wrote what actions were to be taken against them.
And you europeans don't understand the importance of the situation because you are not primary targets. We are. An ocean way and with relatively high percentages of muslims part of your citizenry, you take a lighter view of what is going on. Furthermore, you take no responsibility for your own actions that has led us to this point. Instead of repeatedly asking questions that have been answered by the Red Cross, europeans should start taking an impartial view of
how the ruins of empires and the american directive will affect atavistic societies? And how can we help? That is what you should ask yourselves.
These trials are being held in these conditions because of the gravity of the situation. This protean enemy incubates, then goes into action when either the time is right or when certain words are uttered. They're dangerous because the ethereal phantom has supposedly given them certain instructions and they are bound to follow. As I've stated earlier, only US citizens will get special privileges because we are dealing with US laws. UK and other nationals will be treated as non-US. Some of these people will be let go, as have happened already. Those that pledged their allegiance to our enemy will be dealt with in a proper and just manner. But most people are forgetting that this is just one part of the war. There are many other frontlines, and they're being fought with the best of our abilities.
This is going to be a long war and the nexus has to be weakened before it can cause more damage. The war between man and god is what this is all about, in my opinion, and man has to win for his survival. The virus that these terrorists carry with them is nothing more than fear. Fear of the ethereal phantom. They want to instill it into others, just as it has been instilled into them. We can't let that happen.
