Raising the Specter of Military Tribunals

Re “Convened for Special Circumstances, Tribunals Have a Way of Expanding,” Nov. 21: Clearly, military tribunals serve one general purpose: to circumvent the normal process of justice, reduce the burden of proof and ease the conviction of those accused. In this they seem, by nature, abusive. Whether such courts authorized by President Bush would reach beyond their intended purpose, as they have in other nations, is not the point.

We face extreme circumstances. Rather than demanding extreme measures, we might do better to demonstrate extreme conviction in what the president himself says we are fighting for. With little or no modesty we tend to think of our very sense of justice, and the system that ensures it, as better than those of other nations. Whether they are remains to be seen.

Steven Clotzman

Los Angeles

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Those who oppose letting military tribunals deal with terrorists ignore the precedents set during both the Civil War and World War II. These emergency measures did not endanger our Constitution then, so why should they do so now? All well and good to say, let’s just blow Osama bin Laden and company away, but what if some idiot accepts their surrender? Then they might well face the kind of jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson in the teeth of all the evidence--or some U.N. or international tribunal about 85% united in its hatred of America. Swift summary justice suits this class of alien criminal!

Arthur Hansl

Santa Monica

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President Bush, boldly comparing himself to President Roosevelt during World War II, claims that he is right to order that accused terrorists be tried by secret military commissions (Nov. 20). He is, in fact, wrong, and his actions are not legally defensible.

President Roosevelt’s action was legally justified because we were at war with Germany. Roosevelt was acting under war powers granted by Congress following a declaration of war and under international law applicable in time of war to punish unlawful belligerents such as spies. While President Bush insists on calling the present military action a war, Congress has not declared war.

It has been claimed that military commissions are necessary because they are expedient. They certainly are, as were the Star Chamber and the Stalinist courts, but we are supposed to be fighting for our values, not those of our enemies.

John Hamilton Scott

Sherman Oaks