Catching Up on Colbert
Watching Colbert from last week. Neal Katyal is on. He represented a Gitmo detainee in the Supreme Court. He made two fatal errors.
First, he is not a professional comedian, and he tried to make jokes. He simply wasn't funny.
Second, his arguments were extremely weak. He kept bringing up the nonsensical retort of the left, "this isn't what our country was founded on," which is, of course, begging the question.
Even worse, and incredibly, he said that he gets letters from soldiers who thank him for defending the Geneva Conventions, because if they get captured, they want to be protected by the Geneva Conventions too. Except, well, no. Our soldiers, if captured, get no such protections, not from anyone we're currently fighting. The people we're fighting behead our troops or burn them alive. That's the whole point.
Does anyone honestly think Madison, Adams, Washington, and so on would really defend the right of al Qaeda to get the same legal protections as any other troops? They'd do what Bush has been doing. They'd lock the captured enemies up and hold on to them as long as they felt like it. Maybe even hang a few. Maybe even without a trial.
First, he is not a professional comedian, and he tried to make jokes. He simply wasn't funny.
Second, his arguments were extremely weak. He kept bringing up the nonsensical retort of the left, "this isn't what our country was founded on," which is, of course, begging the question.
Even worse, and incredibly, he said that he gets letters from soldiers who thank him for defending the Geneva Conventions, because if they get captured, they want to be protected by the Geneva Conventions too. Except, well, no. Our soldiers, if captured, get no such protections, not from anyone we're currently fighting. The people we're fighting behead our troops or burn them alive. That's the whole point.
Does anyone honestly think Madison, Adams, Washington, and so on would really defend the right of al Qaeda to get the same legal protections as any other troops? They'd do what Bush has been doing. They'd lock the captured enemies up and hold on to them as long as they felt like it. Maybe even hang a few. Maybe even without a trial.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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