Comments on: The Yoo Torture Memo http://donklephant.com/2008/04/01/the-yoo-torture-memo/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:33:07 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: tomsulcer http://donklephant.com/2008/04/01/the-yoo-torture-memo/comment-page-1/#comment-425174 tomsulcer Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:59:59 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=5099#comment-425174 Yoo's torture memo is not one of America's most impressive accomplishments. Still, it's important because it highlights a fundamental flaw with our current Constitution which fails to recognize that peacetime and wartime are two substantially different states which require different rules and behavior. In peacetime, there should be a full flourishing of individual rights, freedom to travel, to buy and sell, own property, speak freely. In wartime, however, a nation is fighting for its very survival, and can do a wide range of things to protect itself, including limit speech, seize property for a war making effort, forbid foreign travel, and so forth. During World War II, when the US was faced with perhaps its most serious international challenge, there were all kinds of restrictions placed on citizens, on speech, and so forth. The US was highly socialist during WW2. Of necessity, group rights must rule during times of war provided they function to return the nation to a state of peace (this serves as their source of legitimacy.) I explain this better in my pamphlet on Amazon called Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism by Thomas Wright Sulcer (me). Today, I think the political process has broken down to the point where the only possible hope for America is a Second Constitutional convention which I'm summoning for July 2009. Yoo’s torture memo is not one of America’s most impressive accomplishments. Still, it’s important because it highlights a fundamental flaw with our current Constitution which fails to recognize that peacetime and wartime are two substantially different states which require different rules and behavior. In peacetime, there should be a full flourishing of individual rights, freedom to travel, to buy and sell, own property, speak freely. In wartime, however, a nation is fighting for its very survival, and can do a wide range of things to protect itself, including limit speech, seize property for a war making effort, forbid foreign travel, and so forth. During World War II, when the US was faced with perhaps its most serious international challenge, there were all kinds of restrictions placed on citizens, on speech, and so forth. The US was highly socialist during WW2. Of necessity, group rights must rule during times of war provided they function to return the nation to a state of peace (this serves as their source of legitimacy.) I explain this better in my pamphlet on Amazon called Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism by Thomas Wright Sulcer (me).

Today, I think the political process has broken down to the point where the only possible hope for America is a Second Constitutional convention which I’m summoning for July 2009.

]]>