- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I agree with Glenn that this is now the common response to events like terrorist attacks:
The temptation is great even among the most rational to empower authority to do anything and everything -- without limits -- to punish those responsible and prevent repeat occurrences.
I can remember a time when the sentiment for such a situation was "Throw the book at them!"
What a difference that is. The idea was for the perpetrators to suffer the maximum possible punishment, but for that punishment to come from "the book", a euphemism for the law.
Now, the punishment (along with the procedures for convicting and sentencing) called for by "the book" are simply not good enough and we must go further. This quite literally true with regard to one book, the US Army Field Manual, that lays out in detail what is and what is not allowed in interrogation.
Imagine the alternative universe where a President Gore "threw the book" at al Qaeda. Or one where the citizens and press of the United States insisted that President Bush operate "by the book" in his efforts.
Is the willingness to throw away "the book" what they really mean when "patriots" say that "everything changed after 9/11"?
