I’m afraid it is a long standing tradition in our history to inter people without trial or even legal complaint. Think of governmental treatment of Native Americans, slavery, or more recently Japanese interment camps. Torture has appeared in our past, too (think of the Philippine-American War).
But at its best, our legal system demands people are innocent until proven guilty. Either they are accused of a crime or, in a battlefield situation, they are prisoners of war. We alter that at our peril.
I’m afraid it is a long standing tradition in our history to inter people without trial or even legal complaint. Think of governmental treatment of Native Americans, slavery, or more recently Japanese interment camps. Torture has appeared in our past, too (think of the Philippine-American War).
But at its best, our legal system demands people are innocent until proven guilty. Either they are accused of a crime or, in a battlefield situation, they are prisoners of war. We alter that at our peril.