The Best Possible Face

Wednesday’s front page headline, Bush Signs Tough Rules on Detainees, got it wrong. It should have read, Bush Signs Death Tough Rules for Americans. The Military Commissions Act, which allows the president to accuse anyone, of being an unlawful enemy combatants, including US citizens, puts the T in tyrany. A bit overstated, you think? Let’s see.

Putting the best possible face on this legislation, let's imagine Mr. Bush actually has the country’s best interest at heart. What are the chances he will get it right? Judging by his handling of Katrina victims, the chances are less than none. The administration’s zeal to appear tough on terrorism, combined with its obvious incompetence, will doubtless result in the imprisonment of tens thousands of innocent Americans: some because they happen to be Muslims, some because they happen to share a name with a real suspect, some because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. All will lose the right to a speedy trial, good counsel, or even to see the evidence against them. They will be doomed, by good intentions and bad politics.

Putting the worst face on it, what if at some point in the future we find ourselves in a conflict with North Korea? Not too hard to imagine. What’s to keep a future president from sending the National Guard into Korea Town in Los Angeles and arresting all the Koreans as unlawful enemy combatants? That couldn’t happen in America, you say? Ask a Japanese friend.

In fact, what’s to keep a president from arresting anyone critical of his policy? Adams tried it. The law is our only protection. The law is the only thing we have, the only thing standing between us and the power of a despot. President Bush, with the aid of a cowardly Congress, has cut the heart and soul out of American law, and as long as we do nothing, we have no one to blame but ourselves.