Sunny Guantanamo (Re: Speaking of the Geneva convention)

[Jim Dixon]

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 Freematt357 at aol.com wrote:

> > >In a nutshell, our Constitution *recognizes* universal human rights.  It
> > does
> > >not *establish* these rights.  If we are going to be faithful to this
> > >premise, physical location is a non-sequitor.
> >
> > This is a valid and probably commendable political position.  I do not
> > believe, however, that it reflects current practice in the USA or
> > elsewhere.
> >
> > I say "probably" because it seems likely that adopting this as a practice
> > would have very high costs.
...
> And why would you think that American judicial morality and justice should be
> dependent on cost? After all it would be cheaper for the cops on a traffic
> stop to administratively just shoot you in the head for an offense then go
> through the costs and rigors of a trial.

The personal cost for the police concerned would be very high: those who
weren't really good at running away would be shot dead.  The cost for
those hiring the police would be astronomical:  wages would have to rise
to reflect the danger.  The cost for politicians mandating such a policy
would be equally high: they would be out of office and facing criminal
charges themselves.

If the US tried to export its notion of rights, the global reaction would
be similar.

In either case you could not put a cost on the ensuing chaos.

The US has global hegemony because in reality its policies are reasonable,
because it isn't worth anyone's while to try to oppose it.

If Saddam had been less of an idiot, if he had left Kuwait alone, he would
be relaxing in one of his palaces today and his sons would be out
snatching women off the street, torturing people who had annoyed them --
you know, having a good night out.

China would like to have more power in its region, but the cost of
really pushing for this is much higher than any conceivable gain, and
anyway they can provoke the US a great deal with no particular reaction.
So the political elite concentrates on increasing the production of
Barby dolls and stacking up hundred dollar bills.

European calculations are the same: the potential cost of challenging the
US is incalculable, the potential gain relatively miniscule.  Come on,
let's go down to the pub instead.

--
Jim Dixon  jdd at dixons.org   tel +44 117 982 0786  mobile +44 797 373 7881
http://jxcl.sourceforge.net                       Java unit test coverage
http://xlattice.sourceforge.net         p2p communications infrastructure