It used to be said that self-preservation is the first law of nature.
But much of what has been happening in recent times in the United
States, and in Western civilization in general, suggests that survival
is taking a back seat to the shibboleths of political correctness.

We have already turned loose dozens of captured terrorists, who have
resumed their terrorism. Why? Because they have been given "rights"
that exist neither in our laws nor under international law.

These are not criminals in our society, entitled to the protection of
the Constitution of the United States. They are not prisoners of war
entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention.

There was a time when people who violated the rules of war were not
entitled to turn around and claim the protection of those rules.
German soldiers who put on U.S. military uniforms, in order to
infiltrate American lines during the Battle of the Bulge, were simply
lined up against a wall and shot.

Nobody even thought that this was a violation of the Geneva
Convention. American authorities filmed the mass executions. Nobody
dreamed up fictitious "rights" for these enemy combatants who had
violated the rules of war. Nobody thought we had to prove that we were
nicer than the Nazis by bending over backward.

Bending over backward is a very bad position from which to try to
defend yourself. Nobody in those days confused bending over backward
with "the rule of law," as Barack Obama did recently. Bending over
backward is the antithesis of the rule of law. It is depriving the
people of the protection of their laws, in order to pander to mushy
notions among the elite.

Even under the Geneva Convention, enemy soldiers have no right to be
turned loose before the war is over. Terrorists-- "militants" or
"insurgents" for those of you who are squeamish-- have declared open-
ended war against America. It is open-ended in time and open-ended in
methods, including beheadings of innocent civilians.

President Obama can ban the phrase "war on terror" but he cannot ban
the terrorists' war on us. That war continues, so there is no reason
to turn terrorists loose before it ends. They chose to make it that
kind of war. We don't need to risk American lives to prove that we are
nicer than they are.

The great Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that law is
not some "brooding omnipresence in the sky." It is a set of explicit
rules by which human beings structure their lives and their
relationships with one another.

Those who choose to live outside those laws, whether terrorists or
pirates, can be-- and have been-- shot on sight. Squeamishness is
neither law nor morality. And moral exhibitionism is beneath contempt,
when it sacrifices the safety of those who live within the law for the
sake of self-satisfied preening, whether in editorial offices or in
the White House.

As if it is not enough to turn cutthroats loose to cut throats again,
we are now contemplating legal action against Americans who wrung
information about international terrorist operations out of captured
terrorists.

Does nobody think ahead to what this will mean-- for many years to
come-- if people trying protect this country from terrorists have to
worry about being put behind bars themselves? Do we need to have
American intelligence agencies tip-toeing through the tulips when they
deal with terrorists?

In his visit to CIA headquarters, President Obama pledged his support
to the people working there and said that there would be no
prosecutions of CIA agents for prior actions. Then he welshed on that
in a matter of hours by leaving the door open for such prosecutions,
which the left has been clamoring for, both inside and outside of
Congress.

Repercussions extend far beyond issues of the day. It is bad enough
that we have a glib and sophomoric narcissist in the White House. What
is worse is that whole nations that rely on the United States for
their security see how easily our president welshes on his
commitments. So do other nations, including those with murderous
intentions toward us, our children and grandchildren.

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/ThomasSowell/
http://www.tsowell.com/
__________________________________________________ ____________________
http://www.jbs.org/

On Apr 28, 9:19*am, wrote:
It used to be said that self-preservation is the first law of nature.
But much of what has been happening in recent times in the United
States, and in Western civilization in general, suggests that survival
is taking a back seat to the shibboleths of political correctness.
...
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/T...w.tsowell.com/

0baMa0's Kindness to the Cruel

There is an ancient saying best summarized as: "Those who are kind to
the cruel in the end will be cruel to the kind."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/...the_cruel.html