Tonight I took a break from grading and letter of recommendation writing to watch "Judgment at Nuremberg." Didn't realize it was quite so long, well worth it. I got chills listening to Spencer Tracy's closing argument at the trial, found it online to post here:
...under the stress of a national crisis, ordinary men...can delude themselves into the commission of crimes. How easily it can happen...A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient -- to look the other way.
The answer to that is: survival of what? A country isn't a rock...It's what it stands for, when standing for something is the most difficult.
Interestingly enough, the descenting judge then uses a phrase quite similar to Cheney's comments today about the legacy of the Bush Administration:
It can only be decided objectively...in years to come, in the true perspective of history.
It is my sincere hope that on his first day in office, Obama does two things -- a) close Guantanamo, and b) task his Attorney General to start investigating who approved the use of torture by the US, regardless of where the responsibility falls.
No comments:
Post a Comment