Gay Today: Viewpoint

Bush's Show Trials

By David Williams
Editor, The Letter
Kentucky's LGBT Newspaper

Bush meets with his national security advisors during the 9-11 crisis

It appears that Pres. Bush's proposal to institute military tribunals to try terrorists has some legal basis. His minions keep trotting out the example of those eight Nazi saboteurs who tried to blow up parts of America during World War II. If FDR--god of both left and right these days-could try them in a military court, why can't Bush, they reason.

Never mind that the analogy falters at many points. Don't expect an appreciation of legal niceties from this president, who couldn't even get into law school. No parsing Clinton he.

Is Bush pushing for these tribunals because they're quick and easy and he can execute the guilty more rapidly? His bloodthirsty Texas record on executions speaks well to that point. Military trials require less proof, they need not be open to the public, defendants' attorneys are more restricted, and it takes only a two-thirds vote to convict and sentence a person to death. If he'd had such a free hand while governor of Texas, we shudder to ponder the bloodbath during his reign.

No one questions that terrorists should be brought before a court of law if there's enough evidence against them. But Bush's ideas are beginning to resemble the kind of show trials favored by Stalin, Hitler, and Mao tse-tung in the middle of the last century. How will our allies react when the first terrorist is rushed through this process in secret on the flimsiest of evidence to a certain death? You can at least be sure there won't be any extraditions from Europe.

Like so many things Bush has been trying to do lately, what's strictly legal isn't very prudent. His cavalier attitude-already a hallmark of his rule-is already raising red flags from Moscow to London to Madrid. Perspicacity and wisdom don't have a seat at this administration's table. So much of its foreign policy has proven to be so nearsighted and obtuse, not to say arrogant and rude, we're already wondering how long it will take the next president to repair our reputation within the global village.

We can't think of a better way to ruin America's image of fairness and decency than the kind of kangaroo courts Bush is envisioning. And once John Ashcroft, our iron fisted attorney general of misjustice, starts hauling US citizens into court for criticizing the president (aiding and abetting the enemy, he calls it), we may as well kiss all respect for America goodbye.

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
George W. Bush Needs a Leash--U.S. Congress Told

Bush Seizing Dictatorial Powers--Would Conduct Secret Trials

U.S. Constitution is Now Suffering a Dangerous Assault

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This administration's rapacious romp through the American legal system needs to be stopped by Congress swiftly. American principles still mean something throughout the rest of world. Too bad our bush-league president has such a flippant attitude towards them. This Texas pipsqueak needs to be put down a notch or two before he gets a chance to blast away at what used to be a shining beacon to the world: our sturdy rule of law.