I think that the American Bar Association has a big job here -- educating Americans to understand that the law has to apply universally -- at least our law has to apply equally to all Americans.
If it is against the law for our government to kill an American who holds a high office in the US without a trial, it is also against the law for our government to kill an ordinary American citizen, even a criminal, who is living overseas .
If we are at war in Yemen, we need to declare war there so that all nations and warn all people and all nations that we are at war there.
As for being at war with Al Qaeda. What does that mean? The laws of war apply to wars between nations. How can we apply the laws of war to a movement?
Specifically, how can we fight within the universal laws that apply to war against Al Qaeda. We have never defined Al Qaeda very clearly. Vaguely, it is an organization of Muslim extremists. Somehow it has to do with violence against people and things for a political motive. But we are such a violent nation, and so much of the violence here, even the shooting of Trayvon Martin has a political aspect that defining an act as terrorism in itself involves a judgment that reflects the political bias of the judge.
Equal justice is not a conglomeration of exceptions and special circumstances. One law has to apply to everyone. The Obama administration is continuing the misguided, dangerous policy of special laws applied selectively for special individuals. That policy does not insure equal justice.
We see this same kind of injustice when we compare at the benevolent treatment of the Wall Street thieves and the banks and mortgage companies who robbed us with the aggressive enforcement of the law when it comes to shoplifters and petty thieves. Nothing wrong with punishing shoplifters and petty thieves, but come on now, what about the guys who steal far more? Let's pass laws that impose the same justice on all thieves.
Al-Awalaki may have been a vicious killer. We don't really know. We have to take our government's word for it. And so the German people took their government's word for the fact that Jews were evil, that Socialists had to be imprisoned if not killed.
The universal application of law -- equal justice -- is one thing that can insure that we do not go the way of the Germans. We need to insist on universally applied law and equal justice.
Everyone on DU understands that Trayvon Martin deserved an opportunity to appear and be heard -- due process -- before being tried and executed. The flaw in the Florida law is precisely that it imposes the law unequally. The person with the fastest gun is declared innocent from the get-go. The drone killing of Americans overseas is no different. Our guns are faster and bigger, so we are declared innocent without trial.
Please don't misunderstand me. I am not justifying the evil that is crime or Al Qaeda. I am simply hoping to help you understand that if we sacrifice our dedication to universal law and equal justice, we will descend into a dictatorship of the powerful and most brutal.
Emotional acts of vengeance, acts motivated by fear and not reason are often unjust.
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