Just like a real court

I have not looked lately at the rules created under the Military Commissions Act to conduct trials for the 9.11 accuseds. I do remember, though, that the original executive order appeared to leave open the prospect that George Bush could personally order the executions of anyone tried by military commission regardless of the verdict. Yes, it said that he had the power to issue judgment notwithstanding the verdict of the commission, and did not limit that to clemency for those found guilty. He could kill people cleared by judicial process, initiated in the first place by his own finding. It may have been the single most obscene order ever issued by a U.S. president, amid stiff competition.

At any rate, it is clear that the Pentagon has sent out its talking points memo to all the spokespersons speaking on behalf of the military commissions and there is only one talking point: this is just like a real trial. Look, there's a judge. There are rules. There are burdens of proof and objections and stuff like that. There are tables and chairs just like in a real courtroom.

I sit and listen to these guys and I think: there are rules just like in a real trial (just different rules), and objections (only difference is the judge rules differently on the objections), there's a verdict just like in a real trial (only difference is, this verdict is always guilty). Like the rules themselves make no difference beyond the broad strokes?

I know some of the protections are really important: there's a presumption of innocence (odd, though, that you can hold a person for six years and torture them while presuming them innocent), the state has the burden of proof by a reasonable doubt (but I wonder if that will mean the same thing as in a real court). The real problem is that there's no such thing as your basket of rights being half full. You have to eliminate every possible means for the prosecution to unfairly screw you, or they just pick another way. It's like setting to sea in a boat with a big hole in the starboard bow and saying, look, it's just like a real boat, it's got an intact portside hull and everything. Wink, wink, see you at Davy Jones' locker.