I’ve been catching up on some reading tonight, and have been struck by two gentlemen whose credentials are the ultimate vouchers for their claims. While their position is hardly novel in either academic theory or political discourse, it seems worth at least a moment to reflect on the fact that they are both retired Marine generals. On Sept. 11, Charles Krulak and Joseph Hoar denounced — in the strongest terms one can expect from their station — the apologetic being foisted upon the conscience of free people by architects of torture.
Krulak and Hoar’s rejection of the logical fallacy invoked in defense of these policies, which requires little more than perfect hindsight, is surprisingly subtle, considering the prevailing canard of absolute security. But, their purpose seems to be more fundamental. They recognize that something greater is at stake.
Rules about the humane treatment of prisoners exist precisely to deter those in the field from taking matters into their own hands. They protect our nation’s honor.
The laws that were cast aside in all this, the Geneva Conventions, are neither the thorns of surrendered sovereignty nor the shadows of bygone imperialism. They are, to the best of our ability, the balance between the just and the unjust. Though we may wish to see ourselves the judge in our own case, by what should we be measured if not by the standards of our own providence? Fear, these writers have reminded us before, is the surest means to forget oneself.
It is perhaps appropriate, in this context, to consider Richard Goldstone‘s piece in today’s New York Times. Writing from his position as lead UN investigator of recent conflict in Gaza, the jurist’s primary interest is to
hold accountable those who violate the laws of war.
The means by which this challenge is met will always suffer from a contentious relationship with the subjects of global conflict, of course. Nevertheless, the task is paramount. If friends are either unwilling or unable to give account of themselves as they would have given of their enemies, we risk
a deeply corrosive effect on international justice, and reveal an unacceptable hypocrisy.
This, I dare say, threatens to be a needless assault upon the edifice of free societies.
