In series three of the better world that is the West Wing, President Bartlett orders the assassination of the representative of a foreign government who he believes is responsible for organising terrorist attacks on the US. In series four, events catch-up with him and he is in danger of being exposed. In a telling exchange with Jordan, the lawyer he is engaging to defend him, the discussion turns to the state of international law. She explains that she is finding it difficult to foresee the exact legal consequences of his illegal act. When Bartlett asks why this is, Jordan responds saying that, “most in international law doesn't exist yet.”
Over the last 6,000 years of recorded history, there has never been a nation in the world that claimed to provide full freedom in virtually anything possible than the United States of America. If we were to take every single country, one by one, from a small nation like Nauru with a few thousands of people to a big country like China with well over one billion people, we will always find freedom being restricted in one way or another.
The first anniversary of the war in Iraq has arrived, and America's reputation continues to sink. One year ago, the US tried to bully the world into supporting an unprovoked war, claiming that anybody who didn't believe in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was either a fool or an accomplice of terrorists. Now we know that the US government and its few allies were themselves either fools or liars. But this has not stopped the Bush administration's thuggish behavior.
