Fwd: Bush policies inspired by Nazi theoretician

[Guest guest]

" Sanford V. Levinson, who holds dual professorships in law and government

at the University of Texas, and is an eminent Constitutional scholar,

wrote in the Summer 2004 issue of Daedalus that, 'although some analysts

have suggested that the Bush Administration has operated under the

guidance of the ideas of German emigre Leo Strauss, it seems far more

plausible to suggest that the true minence grise of the administration,

particularly with regard to issues surrounding the possible propriety of

torture, is Schmitt.'

 

" In a similar vein, Scott Horton, chairman of the International Law

Committee of the New York City Bar Association and adjunct Professor at

Columbia University published a note on 'Balkanization' on Nov. 7, titled

'The Return of Carl Schmitt.' In discussing Justice Department lawyer John

Yoo's advice that the Executive Branch was not bound by the Geneva

Conventions and similar international instruments in its conduct of the

war in Iraq, Horton writes, 'Yoo's public arguments and statements suggest

the strong influence of one thinker: Carl Schmitt.'

 

" According to Schmitt, Horton notes, 'the norms of international law

respecting armed conflict ... are 'unrealistic' as applied to modern

ideological warfare against an enemy not constrained by notions of a

nation-state, adopting terrorist methods and fighting with irregular

formations that hardly equate to traditional armies. For Schmitt, the key

to successful prosecution of warfare against such a foe is demonization.

The enemy must be seen as absolute. He must be stripped of all legal

rights of whatever nature. The Executive must be free to use whatever

tools he can find to fight and vanquish this foe. And conversely, the

power to prosecute the war must be vested without reservation in the

Executive - in the words of Reich Ministerial Director Franz

Schlegelberger (eerily echoed in a brief submission by Bush Administration

Solicitor General Paul D. Clement) 'in time of war the Executive is

constituted the sole leader, the sole legislator, sole judge.' I take the

liberty of substituting Yoo's word, Executive; for Schmitt or

Schlegelberger, the word would, of course, have been Fuehrer.' "

 

Full article at:

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3301c_schmitt_profile.html