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Christine Flowers explains why we won World War 2

More inanity from Christine

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 

There aren't enough hours in the day to address the inanity that is Christine Flowers' new column, this one on the Supreme Court restoring the basic constitutional right of habeas corpus. Basically it states that forget about high gas prices or any other issue, the real problem facing America is that a man named Anthony Kennedy -- foisted on an unwitting American people by Ronald Reagan (top) -- wants suicide bombers to move into your neighborhood and have their way with your daughter. I feel compelled to highlight this passage, though:

It's not uncommon for constitutional rights to be suspended, even denied, during wartime. Lincoln suspended habeas during the Civil War, to the outrage of his opponents. Roosevelt interned Japanese, German and Italian citizens living within our borders during World War II, and evoked the same criticism. To this day, there are people who call these initiatives cruel and un-American.
But it would be interesting to see what might have happened if either president had yielded to the civil libertarians of their day and disregarded the exceptional threats posed to our country in a time of war.

Among the people who thought the internment of Japanese-Americans was "cruel and un-American" would apparently include that very same Ronald Reagan, who signed the 1988 resolution passed by the Congress which states that detainment of U.S. citizens and resident aliens was due to ""race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership", as well as George H.W. Bush, who issued a formal apology and helped extend reparations payments to an eventual $1.6 billion, and the U.S. government, which authorized money in the 2001 budget for historical markers at the internment camps to "forever stand as reminders that this nation failed in its most sacred duty to protect its citizens against prejudice, greed, and political expediency."

Yes, Christine, it would have been "interesting" to see if not locking up a bunch of law-abiding American citizen shopkeepers and the like would have undermined the U.S. war machine, our top-notch military strategists, our oil reserves and our development of the atom bomb, and the bravery of "the Greatest Generation" on two fronts. For some reason, I doubt that would have happened.

Did you know Christine is an immigration lawyer?