Judge Andrew Napolitano, who I usually agree with, blows it out his tuchus. Torture, the USA, Lincoln, and free men in warfare.

We begin this trail of American policy, and morality with Hillary and Bill Clinton on the subject of torture, and Brian and the Judge, one of the best, AND most entertaining shows on the radio (XM-168 9-12 AM East Coast).

Hillary notably expressed herself against any American POLICY of torture in special cases. I agree. The example given on the radio was, we capture Al Qaeda #3 who knows where a bomb in NYC is about to go off, therefore we need an American policy to set free the interrogators in such limited circumstances to do what they have to do.

The net of that would be that America would thus have a policy to administer torture.

Wrong.

The men on the spot would simply have to DO WHAT THEY DEEM APPROPRIATE, and face the music as Americans. If that means 12 men and women, it's called jury nullification. If not, it's called a pardon. Everyone assumes their responsibility, including a judge who suspends sentence if needs be. The men on the spot, the DA, the jury, the judge and the governor, and/or president. But the USA should NEVER have a policy to ADMINISTER torture. It is to Israel's denigration that they had one (which didn't work so well, as I understand it). Mr. Dershowitz and I part on this as well.

On most views of this type my own feelings parallel the Judge and THIS GUY

The Judge then took his proper view on this and jumped off the historical bridge by saying that killing such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki was immoral (and thus, how could Sherman escape from this?). The intentional killing of civilians (an assumption that this was the POINT of the bombing on the Judge's part) is immoral and illegal (i.e., therefore a war crime)

Sorry Judge, but HISTORY clearly says that Japan (revisionists aside) was NOT about to give in, and in fact on the day the Emperor was about to surrender, he was almost kidnapped and or killed by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Admiral Ugaki took off AFTER Nagasaki with intent to lead Kamikazes ANYWAY. Japanese radios stations resisted occupation forces after surrender. The Japanese Army had handed out 3 million bamboo spears to the civilians, as clear a message as their is about what they expected the Japanese people to do ..their duty to die rather than do the unforgivable.

American casualty estimates were about 250,000 killed and up to a million total casualties. As it was, there were 290,000 American servicemen KIA in the ENTIRE WORLD WAR. American estimates of japanese casualties were an unbelievable 3-4 million -KILLED.

Adm Leahy who was against the use of nukes went so far as to say when considering the invasion of Japan, and US demands...

"None of the points were draconian, at least compared to those imposed on Germany. Japan was to be "stripped of all" its overseas conquests, presumably to quarantine a nation that Roosevelt believed was genetically disposed towards acts of lawless violence. The president's policy of isolating Japan from the rest of Asia may have smacked of political eugenics, but nothing was said about occupation, demilitarization, war trials, or the emperor of Japan. Nor was there any hint of the worst fear of one JCS intelligence officer: a bloody invasion of the home island that would destroy the imperial Japanese government before it could negotiate a peace"

As for Truman, as ALL of the men there at the time point out, the Japanese rebuffed the American demand for surrender at Potsdam, after Germany was destroyed and had surrendered, even though by that time even the now horrific multi-division killing effort on Okinawa was wrapping up, and it was THIS example .. with the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions at about 50% casualties ..which they faced against this power which, anyone could see was not going to win, but never the less, would NOT relent.

So Truman faced - what, and endless blockade at the end of a war during which Japan had demonstrated GASHIN SHOTAN, the willingness to 'lick liver and drink bile' rather than give in, or an invasion with millions dead, or use of nuclear weapons, with prospectively no or few American casualties and an end to the war.

Sorry Judge, but we weren't fighting for moral correctness, as the men on Peleliu could have told you any day.

And now let's turn to the idea of killing civilians, the heart of your argument, and the idea that a just war can also be, among free men, against anyone else, CIVILIZED, and one Billy T Sherman.

Continue reading Judge Andrew Napolitano, who I usually agree with, blows it out his tuchus. Torture, the USA, Lincoln, and free men in warfare..