Morris Davis
11/11/2009
Davis asserts that it is a mistake to try some detainees in federal courts and others by military commissions. Military commissions satisfy the requirements of the Geneva Conventions, which are the source of the detainees’ rights. The rights in federal courts surpass the Geneva Conventions requirements and give detainees more than their status and the law demand. This discrepancy will perpetuate the perception that Guantanamo and justice are mutually exclusive. Davis believes we need to change the negative perceptions that exist about Guantanamo and our commitment to the law, which will only be reinforced by the formal establishment of a legal double standard.
Davis is the former chief prosecutor for the military commissions. He retired from the military in 2008.
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The real strategic challenge for the Western allies lies not in Afghanistan but in Pakistan. Pakistan is the prime example of a country where the potentially deadly dangers of nuclear weapons cross with the rising influence of jihadism. The West propped up General Pervez Musharaff’s regime with $12bn of military aid over ten years only to see the extremists running about out of control while the Pakistani army remains fixated with India. The problems of the whole central and south Asia region will remain unresolved while Pakistan’s world view remains India-centric.
Kristof looks at statistics about US health care to debunk the myth that we have the best health care system in the world. Among 19 developed countries that have succeeded in avoiding “preventable deaths,” the US ranks last, and it did not rank first on any other comparison list. In most countries people do have longer waits to see specialists, but they also have longer hospital stays and more medication. In addition, Americans pay 118 percent more per pill for that medication, and insurance companies, not the government, decide whether to offer or deny life-saving treatment. After Americans reach age 65, they can expect to live longer than people in other nations because they have universal health care called Medicare.
This week’s elections bore out several important themes in advance of next year’s midterm congressional campaign. The governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey both showed that a strong conservative candidate can succeed in traditionally liberal states. Moreover, President Obama campaigned heavily for the incumbent Governor Corzine in New Jersey, so that defeat carries a particular weight. However, the congressional race in New York does show a significant tension between moderates and conservatives in the Republican Party that must be resolved if they are to capitalize on this momentum next year.
McArdle looks at the concept of geoengineering to develop large-scale projects to decrease the CO2 in the atmosphere. She says the scale of the carbon reductions that will be required in developed nations are massive. However, the political will to achieve them is very weak, even in Europe. Even if we somehow develop the political will, unless we also make some radical advances in cheap renewable energy technology, China is going to burn all of her coal, plus all of the oil we don’t buy from the Saudis, rendering most of our efforts moot. Geoengineering has to be an international undertaking or every country will just play to its own agenda.
Food companies and restaurants in Sweden may be listing the fossil fuel emissions that went into the production of the food. Smith says so far it’s an experiment to test whether people change their buying habits to purchase the supposedly eco-friendlier foods. However, there are problems because politics and science seem to be colliding as Swedish locally grown food gets the lowest ratings, which indicates that buying imported food is not only economically bad for the country but also environmentally.
Alhomayed notes that Israelis took an extreme view of Iranian intentions, contrary to many Western countries. Iran also took an extremist position. President Ahmadinejad has tied nuclear development to Iran’s survival. If it wants Iran to give up nuclear development, the West may have to offer Iranian regional hegemony, a condition Arabs would not accept.
European states became secular many centuries ago, opening the way to scientific inquiry and progress, writes Strenger. Israel was supposed to have been a secular state, but David Ben Gurion made a disastrous bargain with the orthodox establishment, opening the way to unique religious strife between Jews in Israel. Religious Jews should lead the way in pressing for secularization.
