The Holder Decision: Undermining Our Time-Honored Notions of Citizenship
Through all the coverage and debate surrounding Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try five 9/11 jihadists in New York City, one implication has received little attention: With this momentous decision he has cheapened the value of U.S. citizenship. To fully comprehend this, it helps to go back to a crucial turning point in the development of what we call Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence – the 1215 signing, by England's King John, of the Magna Carta. This document, forced upon the king at the point of a multitude of combat lances, spelled out a number of fundamental rights to be enjoyed ...
James K. Polk and the Lessons of War We Never Seem to Learn
In January 1846, President James K. Polk issued a military order designed to generate a war with his country's southern neighbor, Mexico. He sent Gen. Zachary Taylor, with some 3,500 troops, to the east bank of the Rio Grande River, into territory that was in dispute between the two countries. Further, he did so without even hinting to anyone beyond his most intimate inner circle that his underlying motivation was to generate a war. When elements of Taylor's army inevitably clashed with Mexican troops, Polk promptly sent to Congress a message declaring that Mexico had "spilled American blood ...
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