Mr. Ashcroft is Stunned

This video that "stunned" me surfaced today on Digg:



How are you wrong, Mr. Ashcroft? Let me count the ways:

1) WWII is not Iraq. I know that would be convenient, but its not true. Iraq is (now) an occupation, not a war. You corrected yourself when you said "POW" instead of "detainee," and I'm glad you did. Our government is running a transitional government in Iraq, not running a war. And the people at Guantanamo are not just people caught in the field with weapons--they are also people who got dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night. The distinction between suspected combatant and actual combatant is an important distinction that should not be made behind closed doors.

2) The belief that guilty people will escape detainment if given a fair trial is a vote of no confidence in the justice system, Mr. Ashcroft. Is that really the message you want to send to the world, especially when we are supposedly in Iraq to spread our great American ideals? Because I have news for you: we don't have trials and due process because we are crazy idealists, or because our forefather's were hopelessly naive children making the rules for a fantasy land. We have them because they work. They work really well in protecting human rights (no, not American rights, but human rights). And if you believe that things like justice and fairness are inconvenient, then how dare you call yourself an American? If our nation cannot sustain on the values upon which it was founded, then why fight for it at all?

3) I find amusing that you are "stunned" that people do not trust your administration to carry out justice in private. You, who have been racked with scandals (yourself), who have kept company with criminals who don't care about the law. Details of injustice and torture have become known even though these "detainees" have been kept out of view already! And you are surprised to find out that people don't trust that the right thing is being done? What world are you living in?