We’ve known for decades that the CIA actively hunts down, tortures, and murders people without trial. Many conservatives defend these extrajudicial practices, claiming they make us safer. Likewise, many so-called liberals have turned a blind eye to these practices as well since they don’t directly affect US citizens. However, is there really much of a barrier keeping our government from torturing US citizens it disagrees with as it tortures non-citizens it disagrees with? Indeed that barrier has already been crossed in our “war on terror”. The case of Gary Webb offers evidence that the CIA has been executing US citizens for quite a while as well.

The principles of justice and liberty were once considered self-evident. Even Nazis deserved a fair trial. However, as our country became more authoritarian, our collective principles change to reflect it. Now we hold a system of worldwide detainment to be self-evident that no guilty party shall escape unpunished. The majority of those killed and mistreated are always civilians, and their loss is considered an “acceptable loss”.

Benjamin Franklin, echoing Voltaire and Blackstone, once said:
“That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.”