What Bush Did Wrong:
1) Created Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
November 13, 2001, President Bush led America too close to the edge of tyranny’s steep drop off.
It was on that day the executive order authorizing the creation of military tribunals for the detention, treatment and trial of certain non-citizens in the war against terrorism was signed.
A military tribunal works in an inquisitorial system, a legal system where the court is not only judging the case but is also actively involved in determining the facts of the case. Our American ideals tell us the court should be an adversarial system, or an impartial referee, not the judge, jury, and prosecution.
The order denies any of the detainees the ability to, “seek any remedy or maintain any proceeding in any court of the United States or any State therof, any court of a foreign nation, or any international tribunal.” If these men are guilty of terrorism, try them in our Courts. Sentence them to justified punishment. Make sure these heinous men face justice. But I don’t see that in this order.
I see uncertainty in Bush’s confidence that these men are terrorists. And it is on that foundation of uncertainty, that government’s power was grown. This makes me nervous.
In November of 2001, Senator Patrick Leahy, as a part of his opening statement on the ”DOJ Oversight: Preserving Our Freedoms While Defending Against Terrorism” on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated, “The three institutional pillars of our democratic government, standing together, are stronger guarantees of our freedoms than any one branch standing alone. America benefits when we trust our system of government – our system of checks and balances — to work as it should. Today we may get some insights into why the Administration has chosen this new approach.”
We the people cannot enable our government to become a monster in order to stop a monster. Evil exists in the world and it is government’s responsibility to stop it. In order to bring evil to its end, we must understand that monsters don’t stop monsters; they just create more violence.
There is no doubt in my mind that America can, if she is willing, put an end to terrorism without losing our standards for the sanctity of life. We must empower our government to make the bold choices that hold life to a high value while bringing those responsible for terrorizing the innocent to punishment.
We cannot let those that want you and I dead free to roam the streets of this world. However, we cannot strip someone of their freedom without evidence and confidence in a court.
I have much to learn on this subject, as you probably do too, but I have reason to pause and disagree when my government grows too aggressive, too large, and too close to the brink of tyranny. Prustice.
Prustice 
I was thinking about our conversation a little bit and I was wondering if you had read John Locke’s “Two Treatises on Governement.” It has a lot to do with the natural state of a human and the freedoms that we give up to be protected by a governing body. If you haven’t check it… i found the full text online, here is the link.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1690locke-sel.html
Oh and by the way, this makes me excited! I love your passion for this and hopefully we can talk some more, this stuff has my heart! LOVE IT!
In your opinion where did W. go wrong in the area of leadership? Specically or in general?