The Rule Of Law Does Work: We Do Not Beat Terrorists By Taking Away Civil Liberties

A long held enemy combatant pleaded guilty today in a basic civilian court. He had been held as an enemy combatant for 5 years with all of his liberties taken away by the past administration. In that time, he did not confess or give any useful information. And in fact, the other large example of torture being used and getting information has been deeply discredited (proven factually incorrect and being perpetuated by someone who is not a spokesman for the CIA).

My take away is the America can get what it needs to protect itself by doing what it does best - having a strong legal system that gives wide civil liberties and treats people by a code of conduct that does not include torture. It may be flawed at times, does indeed work. We do not need to bend who we are - this does not make us safer.

With that said, I wish people would drop any ideas about trying to have criminal charges against the past administration for the methods that they used - torture, wire tapping etc.... It is time to let it go, and let it be a lesson that those methods that seem to create safety indeed do not.