Obama and military tribunals

Is the president breaking or fulfilling a campaign promise by allowing revamped military commissions?

President Obama is continuing to dance the “reversal cha-cha,” said Truthdig. Obama has reportedly decided to “take up the very military tribunals he’d sharply criticized before taking office.” The spectacle of Obama military tribunals will serve as a reminder of how easily politicians can forget their campaign promises.

Obama has made many moves that “have disappointed his administration's liberal allies but heartened Bush supporters,” said Julian E. Barnes in the Los Angeles Times, including this week‘s decision “to withhold photos depicting alleged abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers.” But the White House says Obama never promised to abolish military tribunals, only to change them.

So, we're stuck with the Obama military tribunals, said Glenn Greenwald in Salon. I suppose that if we're going to have military commissions, it’s better to have “more safeguards rather than fewer, ” but Obama himself has argued that U.S. civilian courts are perfectly capable of delivering swift justice in these cases. Even “kinder, gentler military commissions” tell the world our government is willing to bend the rules when it thinks it can’t convict someone “under our normal system of justice.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us