This Is Not Justice

In a curious editorial in the Times today, Jena prosecutor Reed Walters wants the world to know that he had no choice but to follow his solemn duty and prosecute Mychal Bell and a half-dozen other African American teens for beating up a white fellow student. But as many readers will quickly notice, Mr. Walters conspicuously fails to detail whether the initial blow allegedly struck by Mychal Bell to Justin Barker was with a fist or a deadly weapon. Nor does he describe why Bell might have intended permanent harm or death. His use of subjective words like "vicious" merely inflame.

If every person who ever delivered a sucker punch were guilty of attempted murder, then there were at least a dozen such felons in my high school alone. While not a fight, the Jena incident was the result of an ongoing conflict among kids. No, not hardened adult criminals, but children. Doesn't every childhood prank have an instigator? Instigation should have no bearing on whether the perpetrator is given the status of an adult. I would wager that the mistakes of white teens are dismissed far more often than those of black teens, so I have to wonder, what principle other than bias led to that initial adult charge? Indeed, why were the severe charges of attempted murder initially brought? One could easily argue that hanging nooses on a tree is tantamount to conspiring to commit murder. What message does it send other than "we want to kill you!"? And yet, no charges could be found for this so-called prank?

Hiding behind "just doing my job" doesn't change the fact that Mr. Walters has discretion over the cases he chooses to prosecute, and how he chooses to prosecute them. Why were no African Americans on Mychal Bell's jury? So many questions persist, and given the checkered history of justice in Dixie, the system there remains guilty until proven innocent.

- JT Compton

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Kicking A.S.S.

Congressional hearings on Iraq this week, featuring the report by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker on the Surge, became a showcase for Democrats to rake the Bush Administration over the coals for its grotesque bungling and mismanagement of the Iraq occupation.

President Bush, speaking in Australia, claimed that his Surge was “kicking ass.” But given the level of violence, which even under the most optimistic assessment has only receded to its 2006 level, Bush’s “kicking ass” comment was used repeatedly as a point of ridicule. If a slight reduction in horrific violence can be called “kicking ass”, then it’s hard to imagine how much lower the bar for success in Iraq can be set.

The most important question of today’s Senate hearings came from Barack Obama, and it went unanswered. In essence, he wanted to know under what circumstances the Ambassador and General would recommend that we withdraw our forces without our goals being met.

It’s more than a fair question. And the absence of an answer tells us that the Bush Administration and its minions want to meet their “goals” under any circumstances, suffering any losses.

But their “goals” have always been wildly unattainable and misguided. They wanted to kill every individual in Iraq who fit the description of a terrorist, as if this were a finite number. They wanted to impose order and security, apparently in the fashion that we enjoy here in America. And they wanted an American-style democracy to flourish, absent any notion of ethnic or tribal identity. Now, as then, these goals are tragically laughable, deranged and effectively impossible.

The latest goal, facilitated by the Surge, has been to provide better security while the government, military and police "stand up". But the Surge has done little to change the facts on the ground in Iraq. Other developments unrelated to the Surge have given small glimmers of hope. That the Sunnis have grown sick of Al Qaeda and kicked them to the curb is the most important of these. But the long-running and deep-seated conflicts and resentment among tribes and clans is not going to go away any time soon.

Thus, it is becoming clear that we remain faced with two hideous choices. Stay the course without any end in sight, with mounting casualties and with no guarantee of success, or begin a phased withdrawal and hope that Iraq doesn’t fully implode.

The only thing getting its ass kicked these days is President Bush and his policies.

- JT Compton

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