Enemies deserve no protections

Re “Return to the rule of law,” editorial, Dec. 18

Your editorial supported the restoration of the writ of habeas corpus to enemy combatants. No one can restore something that never existed in the first place. At no point in our history has the privilege of habeas corpus been extended to enemy combatants, whether they were from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Vietnam, Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Britain or even South Carolina.

Our soldiers gave their lives for the freedom of Americans, not America’s enemies.

MICHAEL EJERCITO

Long Beach

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The Times cites Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who advocated habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants unless the U.S. had been invaded. Wasn’t the U.S. invaded on 9/11 when 3,000 Americans were murdered? The invasion included attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a possible attempt to destroy the White House. The late Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson opined: “The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.” The right of habeas corpus does not apply to foreign invaders. I pray it never will.

CLYDE FELDMAN

Sherman Oaks