JUSTICE???

 

Alleged war criminal Ratko Mladic will be the beneficiary of the due process of law.

Alleged war criminal Osama bin Laden was the beneficiary of the process of summary execution.

David Sirotta provides three possible explanations:

1. Mladic is a white guy accused of killing 8,000 Muslims, while bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives are non-whites accused of killing (at least) 3,000 people, most of whom were not Muslim. Perhaps our government is admitting that it believes white people accused of killing thousands of Muslims deserve due process, while non-white Muslims accused of killing thousands of non-Muslims do not deserve due process.

2. Mladic is accused of killing 8,000 Bosnians, bin Laden was accused of killing 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Maybe this is an example of a perverse form of American exceptionalism—specifically, our government believing that those accused of killing foreigners deserve due process, but those accused of killing Americans do not.

3. Mladic was a part of an internationally recognized government when he allegedly committed his war crimes. Bin Laden was a stateless terrorist when he committed his crimes. Maybe our government is saying that if one marshals the apparatus of an official state to kill thousands of people, one deserves due process, but that if one kills thousands of people without state sanction, one deserves does not. In other words, perhaps our government is saying that one form of mass murder is somehow more acceptable—and thus more deserving of a legal court inquiry—than another.

Read the whole article When do war criminals deserve justice?