Beware of anyone suggesting that human rights interfere with national security.

[bleever]

Our nation was founded, and its survival forged, on the radical idea, new on the planet, that national security required, by its very nature, respect for human rights.

Human rights are the foundation of what has made the idea of America so powerful over the last two centuries.

Anyone who asks you to be willing to sacrifice human rights for security is asking you, point blank, to turn your back on the heart and soul of what has made America a miracle and a force for good all across the globe.


Just say no.


No, we won't be frightened into thinking that we're under such an unprecedented threat that we need to sacrifice our privacy, or a government with checks and balances.

No, we reject the notion that we must become like our enemies to defeat them.

And no: the national security of America isn't threatened by human rights; it depends on them.

[daninthemoon]

1. Damn straight. Without human rights, there is no more America.

[hedgehog]

2. YES YES YES

:bounce:



I think that question was code for will you allow torture.


Obama chose human rights, Clinton chose security.

[bleever]

4. And torture, like capital punishment, or "collateral damage",

depends on your willingness to say, Hey, sometimes you get the wrong guy, but it's for the greater good.

Talk about totalitarianism at its worst.

[Lord Helmet]

19. "Obama chose human rights, Clinton chose security."

:thumbsup:

[radiclib]

3. Bleever for President

I guess it was WAY too much to ask that ANY of our candidates would give an answer that spot on to Blitzer's obnoxious question.

[IndianaGreen]

5. If we support Musharraf, we will be hated just as we were for our backing of the Shah of Iran

I cannot believe we are supporting the dictator Musharraf instead of the democratic forces in Pakistan. This wil come back to bite us in the ass, and rightly so.

[bleever]

6. If it's okay for Musharraf, is it okay for Bush?

The question from tonight's debate positing a conflict between human rights and national security is the essence of the problem facing America right now. We need to get the answer right.

[IndianaGreen]

24. There was plenty of security under Josef Stalin

And the same argument used by Stalin to justify torture, is now being used by the likes of Bush, Mukasey, DiFi, and Schumer.

We have become a third world military dictatorship!

[bleever]

7. This is in response to Wolf Blitzer asking which is more important,

and trying to force the candidates into implicitly acknowledging that human rights are at odds with national security.

Shame on you, Wolf.

[JerseygirlCT]

8. Yes. I was horrified at the way that part of the debate developed

That it was even set up in such a way as to make the two seem to be conflicting ideas is a very shameful testament to where we've come as a nation.

As you say, human rights are the bedrock, the foundation, of our security. Nothing else matters as much. That anyone would be willing to consider them as ideas in opposition is troubling.

[bleever]

9. Blitzer also framed a lot of questions using failure as a premise.

I.e., since we can't have comprehensive immigration reform, do you support licenses for "illegal" immigrants.

There were a couple other times when I noticed him doing the same thing, with the aim of boxing the candidates into rhetorical corners.

[gratuitous]

10. Yes indeed; and rarely is the question asked . . .

Why should state departments of motor vehicles become an adjunct arm of the INS? And if we make drivers licenses contingent on legal residency, rather than ability to drive, why not make all licenses, personal and profession contingent, too? Your papers, please.

And why just licenses granted by the government? Why not the ability to buy groceries? Everyone goes to the Piggly Wiggly sooner or later -- why don't we deputize check out clerks to be border agents, and refuse to sell to anyone who can't produce their papers establishing them as legal residents on the spot? Your papers, please.

This is clearly such a hueueueueuge priority that all functions of our society should subordinate themselves to rooting out and expelling illegal immigrants! Your papers, please.

In fact, before, during and after every broadcast, cable or high def telecast, the host and everyone who appeared should have to produce proof of residency, from Wolf right down to the last hair spray spritzer in the green room. And anyone who fails to come through puts everyone on the set and in the studio at risk of deportation. Your papers, please, Mr. Blitzer (if that IS your real name).

[Greylyn58]

11. Great post bleever

K & R to you. :D

[bleever]

12. Thank you, Greylyn

and Sheridan.

:hi:

[Forkboy]

13. It's a sad state of affairs when the answers given are considered right.

My father and I were talking today about how sad America has become, and this was one of the things he spoke about.And he's a big time centrist, not some far lefty like me.But even he thinks America has turned a corner that we will never recover from. :(

[blm]

14. It looks like we were turning that corner thirty years ago but it is just sinking in

to more citizens in recent years.

We are paying the price for not making honest and open government accountable to the people our top priority.


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

I am ashamed of my own failure in the 90s to demand accountability from Democrats who had the power to open government to the citizens and respect our right to the truth.

[calteacherguy]

15. Human rights is National Security. K&R.

[NanceGreggs]

16. Precisely!

Well said, Bleever!

:applause:

:kick: and REC'D!!!!

[babylonsister]

17. Perfect, bleever!

:applause:

[bonito]

18. Recommended!

[unblock]

20. of COURSE human rights interfere with national security!

don't you know ANYthing about repressive regimes?

:sarcasm:

[williesgirl]

21. HRC must go and now.

[Hieronymus]

23. That just might happen.

[asdjrocky]

22. Thanks for this very relevant post.

Other people who help to support torture:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Burson-Marsteller

[annabanana]

25. Exactly Bleever. A country that does not champion human rights

has no honest constituency, and nothing that deserves securing.

[sampsonblk]

26. Slavery.

[Evergreen Emerald]

27. really? How did we end WWII?

human rights versus national security.