Quote:Sure it is.  It's not granted by anything else, and if you think it is you're kidding yourself.  Rights are granted by government.  Otherwise conservatives wouldn't be worried about Government taking their rights away.


Otherwise we wouldn't have Gitmo.  You can't argue that everyone has these rights, and then not give them to terrorists or terrorist suspects because they're not American.  Or even because they're enemy combatants.

 

This isn't just wrong, this is a thought process that has become far too pervasive in modern liberalism.  The foundations of our democratic republic are codified in the declaration of independence and our legal system is predicated on the idea of pre-existing inalienable rights.  

 

The fundamental purpose of government is to RECOGNIZE and PROTECT the rights of the people from those both domestic and abroad who would infringe on the rights of its citizens.  

 

The process by which a citizens rights are protected against infringement by another citizen or domestic legal entity is through the criminal justice system.  The process by which the government protects its citizens rights against enemy combatants is through the military and the military legal system.  There are inherently certain privileges extended to citizens that wouldn't be extended to foreigners and certainly not foreign combatants. 

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