Jon Stewart: Truman Was a War Criminal, Too

I’m not a fan of the Daily Show.  From my perspective, a sane, reasonable and intelligent world would not designate former D-List actor Jon Stewart as a moderator for any semi-serious discussion.  However, he and a conservative guest, Cliff May, recently engaged in a short debate about “torture.”  It’s worth watching.

The Weekly Standard blog sums it up best:

It comes at about the 5:50 mark. Cliff May asks Stewart whether Truman’s use of the atomic bomb was a war crime, Stewart ruminates and then responds with an unequivocal “yes.” He’s certainly not the only American who would take that view, but it’s a useful reminder that the most vocal and popular criticism of the Bush administration’s war on terror policies comes from people who, if they were being as honest as Stewart, would also judge Lincoln (suspension of habeas), FDR (internment), and Truman (use of nuclear weapons) as war criminals or tyrants or worse.

Stewart repeats the charge again later in the interview, but you have to wonder whether this was one of the rare times that he just got outmaneuvered on his own show. Serious people have debated Truman’s decision for 60 years, but even those who disagree with that decision rarely describe it as “criminal.” And if it was criminal, whatever crimes the left alleges of President Bush seem pretty trivial in comparison.

And for the record, under the Geneva Convention non-uniformed enemy combatants do not qualify as prisoners of war and thus, are not entitled to the provisions laid out in the treaty.  Thus, if you can cut through all the Democratic Party goose-stepping going on in the media, you’ll realize that the Bush Administration bent over backwards to ensure that all of these methods followed the proper, internationally-recognized and morally acceptable (to many at least) avenues on this issue.

Should we still treat terrorists in a moral fashion?  Absolutely!  They are God’s creation, just as much as I am.  But as their tactics are beneath the international standard of what is deemed acceptable in war, then they are not entitled, legally, to the specific protections outlined for prisoners of war in treaties such as the Geneva Convention.  Jon Stewart - and his adoring audience - doesn’t seem to realize that.