China’s Help with North Korea

China Addresses Rising Korean Tensions

-NY Times, 11/27/2010

If you read and understood that, you will see that China has given us exactly the help we needed to de-fuse the Korean situation that we created.

Anyone who is disappointed that the Chinese didn’t publically criticize North Korea is not thinking realistically. To take the US side against their ally in their own back yard would be seen as weak and a betrayal. Whatever advice they have for North Korea will be kept private.

So why haven’t we heard that our State Department has responded “Yes, now that you mention it, perhaps we should postpone those maneuvers.”, or something to that effect?

We should be grateful that China has given us a valid reason for that change in plans; that now we can say we are doing so out of respect for the wishes of the Chinese, in the interest of continued good relations…and not because North Korea has made threats.

It should not take much deep thought to realize that when it is desirable to calm a situation that could get out of control, running around making loud noises and extending the middle finger is probably not the best plan.

That is essentially what we have been doing with periodic war games activities with South Korea’s military, intended as an intimidating reminder of our presence and interests, and gestures of disapproval of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. Since the end of the Cold War we have worked to maintain tension between the Koreas enough to justify maintaining our base and troops there.

It is the sort of international power game better left unplayed, or at least done much more carefully, since it we are placing the lives of South Koreans at risk when we go too far.

President Clinton took a much more intelligent approach to North Korea in the effort to divert their nuclear weaponization program. A major problem in that country is an energy shortage. The light-water reactor they just completed was originally to be done with US assistance as part of a deal to dismantle their reactor being used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The advantage of being a helpful and cooperative nation in the development of peaceful nuclear energy is that it facilitates monitoring their use and inspection and forms the basis of a friendly relationship, rather than attempting to intimidate and economically punish the other country for pursuing its own. The hostility of that tactic increases incentive to develop weaponry, and reduces trust.

For the immediate situation, the best course should be absolutely clear. Listen to the helpful request from China: suspend the war games.

–cosmic rat  11/27/2010

Restoring American Justice

American justice is alive and well and has once again triumphantly asserted itself today:
November 17, 2010: “A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani of one count of conspiracy to destroy U.S. property and acquitted him on more than 280 other counts, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed in the embassy bombings. The anonymous jurors deliberated over seven days.”
Whether Ghallani might have been guilty of more, or not guilty of anything is not the question I am considering here.  The jury has decided, and no one but the jury had the right to decide.
Naturally there are complaints from those who already felt that the American system of justice is much too fair; those who believe that an accused terrorist must be a guilty terrorist, and anyone who questions that must be one too.
Those are the kinds of people who join lynch mobs, or favor dictatorships who dispense verdicts arbitrarily regardless of the law.
Justice does not begin with the trial in court.  It depends on the correct procedures being followed for arrest, gathering and handling of evidence, and the rights to an attorney and to avoid self-incrimination being assured.

It should go without saying that justice cannot include torturing a suspect.  Confessions made in order to get the pain to stop are not credible evidence of anything.
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”  Thus begins the Sixth Amendment.   “Speedy” may be subject to some interpretation, but 9 years certainly isn’t it.
The decision to imprison terror suspects in Guantanamo without  indictment, trial, or legal counsel for many years; the decision to torture some of them; the decision to declare some evidence secret and therefore unusable– these are what make the truth harder to determine when the trial finally happens.
Yet even with these handicaps, a fair trial can and has been conducted.  Finally, for one of the accused detainees, we can say that justice has been done.  To say that a jury of New Yorkers would let a terrorist off easy is absurd.  Yet they took their job seriously and convicted him only on what the prosecutor was able to prove.The rest of those who are still imprisoned without trial cannot be presumed guilty of anything.  They are still only accused suspects.  We will not know whether they are guilty or innocent until their trials are held.
Some of those suspects in future trials may be found innocent.  We may find it embarrassing that we have imprisoned some innocent persons for many years, and we should.  A lesson must be learned.
Each trial, regardless of the outcome, will serve to remind us how important how important justice is to our country.  We were manipulated into abandoning our some of the most important protections of our Constitution by authoritarians.Now, justice is back.  Let’s make sure it stays.

-cosmic rat  11/17/2010