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On being ashamed of one's country

By Jack M. Balkin

Every American should read a story in today's New York Times by Nina Bernstein aptly titled "Italian?s Detention Illustrates Dangers Foreign Visitors Face." Quite frankly, it is the kind of story one would expect to have a dateline of, say, Zimbabwe, China, the old Soviet Union, Myanmar, or Iran. Instead, it depicts our own fearful nation that has created a Kafka-esque "national security" bureaucracy that exemplifies every adage about power corrupting. The attitude of the US Government toward detainees seems all too exemplary of Roger Taney's unforgettable line about the juridical reality facing blacks in America in 1857: The had "no rights that whites were bound to respect." This is a fundamental rejection of what is best in classical liberalism, which is precisely that all individuals have rights that must be respected.

One can only wonder what Mr. Salerno must be telling his fellow Italians about the United States right now. Would it be shocking if he or his friends found himself/themselves saying (something like) "God damn America" for its willful and wanton cruelty to those it deems Others and, therefore, without those rights that we so pridefully accord fellow citizens (except, as with Jose Padilla, when we don't)?

I would like to think that there would be no real disagreement about the truly shameful injustice done Mr. Salerno. Do political conservatives really want to defend what in other contexts would be recognized as a fascist security apparatus?

[UPDATE: One should also read the book review in today's Times, "How Abu Ghraib Became the Anything-Goes Prison," by Michiko Kakutani reviewing Philip Gourevitch's and Errol Morris's new book Standard Operating Procedure. Especially chilling is the following:

In this volume Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade at Abu Ghraib, is quoted as saying that General Miller told the soldiers at the prison: ?The first thing I noticed is that you?re treating the prisoners too well. You have to take control, and they have to know that you?re in control. You have to treat the prisoners like dogs.?

This perfectly captures what can can only be termed the fascist mind-set. It might have begun at Guantanamo (or Bagram), but it has, alas, migrated far beyond Abu Ghraib, even if it would not be expressed so vividly as Gen. Miller put it.]

Full post as published by Balkinization on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).

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