Abstract

Article

The US is in the midst of moral dilemmas which also havegrave repercussions for itself.

A Presidential pardon seemed to imply that it is acceptable to killan unarmedand wounded enemy combatant who offered no threat.  The obverse of this is that an enemy may do the same to American troops.

Now, a military tribunal is trrying a claim in respect of water-boarding torture in a hearing in which the lawyers for the claimants are grossly inhibited by the defence in respect of the witnesses who would be made available.  It is bad enough that highly organized torture ever took place, but if the tribunal does not mete out justice in a clear and proper way, it will justify an enemy's torture of Americans.  The moral standards of all responsible for the torture are no better than those who committed the original atrocities, which they saw as justified by earlier atrocity.

Aside from the terrible unconscionability of the original actions, both of these consequences would be terrible