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Jewish World Review April 12, 2011 / 8 Nissan, 5771 Uncertain Trumpet, Or: Eric Holder Sees the Light, Dimly By Paul Greenberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" --First Corinthians, 14:8 It has taken time. Agonizing, unnecessary, indecisive years of it. But at last the attorney general of Almost 10 years after the dastardly attack on the It's a long-established legal system that should have been used from the first in these cases: the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Eureka! How about that? The previous administration tried to uphold, apply and respect that code. Despite being sorely abused by the Eric Holders and Barack Obamas for its earnest efforts. But that was when these gentlemen were still in campaign mode, seeking executive power rather than having to exercise it in defense of the country. Now both begin to see the light, if terribly late and through the glass of politics darkly. Messrs. Holder and Obama have had to wipe the sleep from their naive eyes, however unwillingly, and agree that the best place to try the chief perpetrators of that illegal, immoral and utterly conscienceless act of war against What's more, that military tribunal that would be convened at Guantanamo -- the secure military prison both vowed to shut down when they were flying so high they couldn't see what the nation's security demanded of them. And still demands: justice at last. It has taken time. Valuable time. The nation's time. Time that might have been better used to pursue justice, not delay it. The attorney general of -- --Mayor --American public opinion in general reacted vehemently to the kind of trial and spectacle General Holder was planning to stage in Alas, he was more right than he knew. This latest fiasco on his watch may indeed define Even now the attorney general has had to be dragged kicking and whining to where he should have been along -- cooperating with these military commissions rather than assailing them. If he could, he says, he would have stuck to his plan to try the masterminds behind That's right: Even after all General Holder should have learned on the job, he would still treat these defendants as if they were ordinary criminals -- carjackers or armed robbers instead of mass murderers for an unholy cause. Murderers who not only have confessed but proudly confessed, and would have been only too happy to use a federal courtroom as a stage on which to strut. But the attorney general of But our current attorney general would jettison all that historical precedent in the case of There was a time when Justice was swift and certain under presidential Proclamation No. 2561, titled "Denying Certain Enemies Access to the Courts of But that was then. What about now? The American people are now led by a president and commander-in-chief of their armed forces who declines to recognize the world war now being waged on this country, the West and freedom everywhere. No, he is directing only Overseas Contingency Operations, or maybe, to quote the presidential press secretary on It's happened before, the Decline of the West. It happens with sad regularity because we forget. We forget the forces out there who begrudge us our very existence, to whom
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