Bauer-ize Them

To many, the policy of reading Miranda rights to terrorists and making them aware of the legal right to remain silent, as well as the right to an attorney, is inexplicable. If the captured terrorist is part of a multi-target plot, like those involved in the 9/11 attack, why would we informationally handcuff those entrusted with the public safety by “Mirandizing” the terrorist who may be a source of crucial intelligence? The response is generally something along the lines of “It’s their right. That’s the cost of freedom.”

So the cost of freedom is that we do not allow those whose job it is to protect that freedom (or another basic right we in America hold dear – the right to life) to do that job effectively. Certainly we can all agree that when two things we want cannot exist at the same time, we must make a trade-off. We may sacrifice expediency in one area to protect freedom in another. But since when does the freedom of a person who intends to make war on our country and destroy us trump the protection of many law-abiding citizens?

Modern liberalism has some roots in what Thomas Sowell calls the unconstrained view of human nature . The unconstrained vision, which sees human nature as malleable and perfectible, finds the suspension of legal rights in the case of public safety a barbaric nod to warlike sentiments. Instead of “beating” the information out of him, we can convince him of the error of his ways with the humanity we extend through the legal system. This in turn will convert him into a man able to fit into civilized society; it will rehabilitate him, and eventually end the war. Rehabilitation is the solution offered for the problem, the crime of terrorism, as it is the solution offered by those who hold the unconstrained view for all other crimes.

The problem is that the terrorist is warring against us. He may be committing crimes while he conducts the war, but fundamentally he does not simply want to avoid the rules of our society, he wants to destroy the society and its people. He cannot be punished, deterred or rehabilitated. He, and his cohorts, can only be stopped, and our legal system is not adequate to wage a war against these enemy combatants, most of whom never possessed legal rights in the first place.

Instead, we “Bauer-ize” them.