Back To The Kangaroo Courts

When he was on the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama promised to close down Guantanamo as a prison camp. When he first became president it looked like he might actually carry through on his promise. He discontinued the military tribunals (kangaroo courts) that considered defendant's rights to be unimportant and admitted "evidence" gotten by torture into court. He said the prisoners were be given fair trials in civilian courts and the "rule of law" would be upheld. This would be the first step in closing Guantanamo.

But he received a lot of opposition from the politicians in Washington (of both parties). These politicians had been playing on the fears of Americans for so long that they were now unwilling to admit that U.S. courts were very capable of dealing with terrorists (as they have demonstrated many times in the past). Instead of fighting for the rule of law and for justice, which this nation claims to believe in, President Obama backed down. There have been no civilian fair trials and Guantanamo is still open.

The president had a golden opportunity to show the rest of the world, both friends and enemies, that the United States was willing to practice what it preaches -- fair trials, the rule of law, and true justice, even for those who may have committed heinous crimes like terrorism. But he blew it. Now he has backed down even further, back into territory once occupied only by the criminal Bush administration. The president has announced that he will be resuming the unfair and secret military tribunals (kangaroo courts) at Guantanamo.

This continues a very bad precedent set by the Bush administration -- that fair trials are only offered if the national government wants them to be offered, and that a fair trial can be denied anytime the national government wants it done. What happened to justice, fair trials, and the rule of law? If these can be denied to anyone, then they can be denied to everyone. President Obama is putting America back on the slippery slope that leads to show trials and guilty before even being tried. Isn't that what fascist governments do?

Justice isn't something we can give only to some people and deny to others. The only way to protect the rights of all Americans is to insure that everyone arrested or held by the government gets those same rights. There is no other way. Justice is either for everyone or it's for no one.