Fairness is not weakness

Thanks to Susan Jacoby, The Spirited Atheist, for the link to Robert H. Jackson's closing statement at the Nuremberg trials in Germany, in 1946. Jackson was the chief prosecutor from the United States.

Here's an excerpt:

Of one thing we may be sure. The future will never have to ask, with misgiving, what could the Nazis have said in their favor. History will know that whatever could be said, they were allowed to say. They have been given the kind of a Trial which they, in the days of their pomp and power, never gave to any man.

But fairness is not weakness. The extraordinary fairness of these hearings is an attribute of our strength. The Prosecution’s case, at its close, seemed inherently unassailable because it rested so heavily on German documents of unquestioned authenticity. But it was the weeks upon weeks of pecking at this case, by one after another of the defendants, that has demonstrated its true strength. The fact is that the testimony of the defendants has removed any doubt of guilt which, because of the extraordinary nature and magnitude of these crimes, may have existed before they spoke. They have helped write their own judgment of condemnation.…

"Fairness is not weakness." Compare this with our cowardly refusal to try most accused terrorists in an open court of law. Instead, we hold them without trial, incommunicado, accused of unknown crimes by unknown accusers. At best, we run them through military tribunals which have become a mockery of justice.

How will history judge us today? As a timid little people, unwilling to stand for anything at all, let alone what has traditionally made America great? Certainly, we're far less than we were. No "greatest generation" us. And I fear we're not the worst, since things seem to be headed downhill rapidly.

What has happened to us? How did this happen? I just don't understand it.