The used car salesman strikes again

[The Magistrate]

506. You May Recall, Sir, The Old Tag

"Where there is no remedy, there is no right."

Where there is no means to enforce, there is no rule of law, nor can there be. I am quite familiar with international humanitarian law, and understand that it is very seldom enforced, and when enforced, is enforced only against the weak and the defeated. Whatever may be written, and even employed at times as guidance in planning and executing various military actions, in point of fact there is no international law, no law of war, nothing which could be dignified by the phrase 'rule of law', and that because there is no mechanism for enforcing it on any and all violators, regardless of stature or power. The actual employment of international law is as one more tool in the politico-military armory, something which can be used to lay claim to moral high ground in a conflict, either by accusation one's opponent has violated it, or by insistence one is oneself abiding by it scrupulously.

No one, not you, not my grand-children's grand-children, will ever see a duly elected government in the United States indict leading figures of the administration it replaces for war crimes, even where these crimes are also crimes under Federal statute, and even where there is no reasonable doubt they have been committed. It is not part of our political and social custom and tradition, and that is not going to change. Nor am I convinced there would be much by way of good result if it were changed.

For the rest, I will leave you to contemplate the concept of just deserts, and a favorite line from old Mr. Clemens....

"I know of nothing against him save that he is a human being, and that is enough to hang any man."