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1) The applicability of Democracy, Justice and Human Rights is universal (e.g. Bush's rhetorical justification for the war in Iraq)
2. The applicability of Democracy, Justice and Human Rights is particular (e.g. the real implications of Camp X-Ray and the Military Tribunals)
My primary issue with Guantanamo Bay is not that it defies Universal laws of Democracy, Justice and Human Rights, but that it's defiers use these "laws" to justify their actions elsewhere.
George W. Bush either has to admit that the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention are of only limited applicability, or he must do everything within his power to ensure their universal applicability.
Bush, Blair and Howard must admit to the public that they believe liberal democracy and its freedoms must be abridged to ensure safety. If they truly believe in liberal democracy and its freedoms then they must admit to the public that they must allow conditions to prevail that leave society open to danger. Freedom and Security are not common bedfellows.
They must put forward their true case to us: that universal human rights and civil liberties are no longer tenable. They must stop justifying their actions in terms of these principles whilst at the same time sneaking them out the back door. The public will either approve or disapprove, but they will all respect their leader's backbone for telling the truth.
We may be seeing an end to the so-called upward momentum of freedom... just as freedom has spread so far across the globe. In the hour of it's triumph, freedom crosses it's own apex and thus begins its afternoon.
In this context the ironic may occur: just as the conservatives came to advocate the progressive and revolutionary extension of liberal economics over society... it may so end that the only ones to remain in defense of bourgeois liberty are leftists like myself!
2. The applicability of Democracy, Justice and Human Rights is particular (e.g. the real implications of Camp X-Ray and the Military Tribunals)
My primary issue with Guantanamo Bay is not that it defies Universal laws of Democracy, Justice and Human Rights, but that it's defiers use these "laws" to justify their actions elsewhere.
George W. Bush either has to admit that the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention are of only limited applicability, or he must do everything within his power to ensure their universal applicability.
Bush, Blair and Howard must admit to the public that they believe liberal democracy and its freedoms must be abridged to ensure safety. If they truly believe in liberal democracy and its freedoms then they must admit to the public that they must allow conditions to prevail that leave society open to danger. Freedom and Security are not common bedfellows.
They must put forward their true case to us: that universal human rights and civil liberties are no longer tenable. They must stop justifying their actions in terms of these principles whilst at the same time sneaking them out the back door. The public will either approve or disapprove, but they will all respect their leader's backbone for telling the truth.
We may be seeing an end to the so-called upward momentum of freedom... just as freedom has spread so far across the globe. In the hour of it's triumph, freedom crosses it's own apex and thus begins its afternoon.
In this context the ironic may occur: just as the conservatives came to advocate the progressive and revolutionary extension of liberal economics over society... it may so end that the only ones to remain in defense of bourgeois liberty are leftists like myself!
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