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By Harris R. Sherline June 30, 2008 Page 2 of 2 Living in a world of well-meaning wishes and good intentions does not win wars. If anything, such a mentality can only interfere with and make an already complex effort more difficult. John Yoo, writing in the Wall Street Journal, notes, "Judicial micromanagement will now intrude into the conduct of war. Federal courts will jury-rig a process whose every rule second-guesses our soldiers and intelligence agents in the field. A judge's view on how much 'proof' is needed to find that a 'suspect' is a terrorist will become the standard applied on the battlefield. Soldiers will have to gather 'evidence,' which will have to be safeguarded until a court hearing, take statements from 'witnesses,' and probably provide some kind of Miranda-style warning upon capture. No doubt lawyers will swarm to provide representation for new prisoners." This Supreme Court decision can only lead to more confusion and the intrusion of civil law procedures and processes into military matters. It is not, nor should it be, about gaining the approval of other nations. War is about breaking things and defeating the enemy, which includes killing them. It is not about "winning their hearts and minds." Anything that complicates or makes matters more difficult for our troops is, by my definition, bad. It's difficult to imagine our fighters stopping in the midst of an engagement to gather evidence and read prisoners their rights, assuming there is no language barrier. There are always unintended consequences to laws and government mandates. And, in this case, I suspect that, in the heat of battle, U.S. troops will simply decide not to take prisoners, but will kill everyone who is fighting or appears to be fighting against them. The unintended consequence in this instance is likely to be fewer prisoners, or having other Coalition fighters, such as Iraqi or Afghani troops, take the prisoners. The battlefield is not a court of law, and no matter how our judges try to alter the rules of engagement, they cannot change the very nature of war. It's hard to think about the rights of people who want to behead us, other than to stop them any way one can. --- NOTE: Read more of Harris Sherline's commentaries on his blog at "opinionfest.com. -------------------- Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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