You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Home Front: Politix
Obama Campaign Clarifies 'Martyr' Comments on OBL
2008-06-20
"First of all, I think there is an executive order out on Osama bin Laden's head, and if I'm president and we had the opportunity to capture him, we may not be able to capture him alive," Obama said. "I think it does not make sense for me to speculate in terms of what the best approach would be in trying him and bringing him to justice. I think what would be important would be for us to do it in a way that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he's engaged in and not to make him into a martyr and to sure that the United States government is abiding by the basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism."

Obama went on to say, "you know I've used this analogy before but one of the hallmarks, one of the high water points, I think, of US foreign policy, was the Nuremburg Trials. Because the world had not seen before victors behave in ways that advanced a set of universal principles. And that set a tone for post-war reconstruction and creation of an international order that I think was extraordinarily important."
Posted by:Fred

#1  Although the results of the Nuremberg trials was, in my opinion, justified and just, it was in fact a case of ex post facto application of justice. The Nazis had done nothing that was illegal under German law at the time. Once we had won, we imposed our version of the laws we wanted.
I wonder if today's Supreme Court would have let the results of the trials survive. At least several of the Nazis could have lived a few years longer by appealing to the US Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. It would have taken years for the case to wend its way through the American courts, and if the Supreme Court heard the case, it would have taken years more to resolve all the cases.
Some of the Nazis tried were not prisoners of war - they were civilians.
Posted by: Rambler in California   2008-06-20 15:24  

00:00