Rational Idealism Comes to Washington, At Last

The Washington Post and other news outlets are reporting that the Obama Administration has instructed military prosecutors to seek 120-day continuances (postponements) of the military proceedings pending against detainees at Guantanamo Bay. That move, in and of itself, confirms the new Administration's commitment to two major principles:

First, the threat of terror does not change the American belief in due process and funadamental fairness in criminal proceedings.

Second, our adversarial, jury-based system of justice is not only the fairest means of conducting criminal proceedings, it is also the most accurate.

The "Star Chamber" procedure used by the last Administration, by contrast, drowned out the American message to the world that liberty is preferable to tyranny. And there is no evidence it got us anything in return. Did President Bush prevent another terrorist attack by his constitution-shredding methods? There's no way to know. It's like the man with the elephant gun in his living room. When his neighbor says, "but there are no elephants in this area," the man waves his gun and says, "Damn right. Cowards."

Thanks to the Obama Administration for recognizing that we have to live free to be free.

The full story is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012004743_pf.html