Alan Bock, Antiwar.com, 18 August 2007
The news story in the New York Times actually painted the conviction Thursday of terrorism suspect Jose Padilla as “a significant victory for the Bush administration.” The L.A. Times suggested something rather similar. It was far from that. If anything, it was a repudiation of the way the administration handled his case. But that doesn’t begin to capture the deep shame (or anger) Americans should feel at the way the government handled the case.
It’s something of a textbook illustration of how war, declared or undeclared, as Robert Higgs explained in detail in his classic book, Crisis and Leviathan, not only leads to government bloat, but to undermining the kinds of civil and other liberties and fair-minded execution of justice on which this country used to pride itself.