----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2001 1:51 PM Subject: Re: Secret Military Tribunals
> On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 11:58:38AM -0500, Gautam Mukunda wrote: > > > Me: I somehow seem to not be making myself clear at all - that or I'm > > just completely misunderstanding what you guys are writing. > > > It appears you are completely misunderstanding. > > > Are you suggesting that the Constitution should guarantee rights to > > people who don't even live in the United States? > > Yes. > > > The only way it could do that, of course, is by dictating a world > > empire. > > No. > Well, lets look at the rights enshrined in the First Amendment to the US Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. I cannot see how you read this in a manner that suggests that the US must use its armed forces to force Saudi Arabia to refrain from establishing Islam as the state religion or requiring China to allow freedom of the press. > For the sake of discussion, "rights" can be divided into 2 categories: > (1) that a person has a right NOT to be forcibly treated in an inhumane > way, and (2) that a person has a right to have or do something. > > I think that ethics and decency demand that every human being, and every > sentient creature, has (1) rights. > > For example, the right to not be arrested without just cause, the right > not to be jailed beyond the minimum time necessary to determine guilt, > the right not to be unilaterally tried by a possibly biased judge, the > right not to be sentenced without chance for appeal, the right not to be > denied communication with peers and press, etc. In other words, life, > liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. > But, while those are fundamental moral principals espoused in the preamble to the Declaration of Independance, and are thus at the moral foundation of the United States, the Declaration of Independance is not the basic governing document of the US, the Constitution is. Nothing in the Constitution states the the United States is legally required to ensure that every person in the world's rights are respected. In order to ensure anything, one must have control of the situation. The government of the United States has control over the United States. It does not have control over China. The only possible way the United States could guarantee anything in China would be to take over China.
