During an MSNBC news broadcast, former U.S General Wesley Clark begins discussing what he felt needed to be done with “radical” individuals. Of course, rather that the camps being like WWII internment camps where Japanese-Americans were held, he feels that any political dissident would need to be placed there to separate them from the rest of society.
The interview takes place shortly after a mass shooting took place in Chattanooga, California, According to Clark, in WWII, “if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the U.S, we didn’t say that was freedom of speech, we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war.” Continuing, he states that he feels it is due time to bring such punishments back to the U.S.
“There are always a certain number of young people who are alienated. They don’t get a job, they lost their girlfriend, their family doesn’t feel happy here, ” he says, and while he is speaking in regards to mainly radical Muslims, his comments are aimed towards ANY radical individuals. Radical meaning that you hold beliefs that are separate than the government or state.
What makes this interview strange, is that the comments are actually quite out of character for Clark, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, and held beliefs that were critical of the Bush administration’s extreme response to 9/11. Furthermore, he said back in 2006 that torture violated “the very values we espouse.”
Unfortunately, the interview only gets worse. “So, if these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle fine. It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict. And I think we’re going to have to increasingly get tough on this, not only in the United States but our allied nations like Britain, Germany, and France are going to have to look at their domestic law procedures.”
Since his statements were made, Clark has denied making a response to the public regarding what he said. Of course, the point could be made that actual prisoners of war, who did indeed pose a threat to U.S citizens, should be removed from the general population and held for trial. However, he doesn’t quite say how exactly his plans would be implemented and based on past legislation there is a very slippery slope regarding the powers of the government.
No comments:
Post a Comment