UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo is currently facing a movement by liberals to remove him from his teaching position. The pressure stems from Yoo’s service as the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel under the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004. In 2003, Yoo wrote an 81-page memo for the administration that detailed the protections U.S. interrogators had when dealing with terrorist enemy combatants. According to a recent New York Post editorial, “the memo argued that citing wartime necessities might sometimes protect military interrogators from criminal prosecution and charges of violating international law.” The memo was released by Washington last month, and many liberals have been quick to label Yoo a “fascist” and call for his removal from his faculty position. We, however, support Yoo in his service during a challenging period in America’s history and also his continued teaching at the Boalt School of Law.
While there has been a liberal movement in academia to remove Yoo from his teaching position since he left the Bush administration, the release of the memo caused the liberals to increase their demands. On April 14, members of the farleft group World Can’t Wait interrupted a speech panel including Yoo at the Bancroft Hotel. While the Daily Californian did not call for his removal, the paper’s editorial board concluded that Yoo, “if not a war criminal, is an enemy of the Constitution” are very misguided. Very strong words from a group of liberals — imagine if they used these types of accusations toward terrorists. The movement to remove Yoo from his law position is in line with the far left’s mantra of preaching freedom of speech while at the same time trying to get rid of anyone who disagrees with its radical views.
Therefore, it is no surprise that they want to remove Yoo. Removing him would set a terrible precedent not just at UC Berkeley, but for all academia because it would mean that strong protest from one ideological faction can have a professor removed. As the Boalt School of Law dean, Christopher Edly Jr., stated in a recent article, “if this strong consensus were enough to fire or sanction someone, then academic freedom would be meaningless.”
Yoo has made contributions to the nation by serving the Bush administration during one of the most challenging periods in U.S. history. By writing the 81-page memo, Yoo provided the administration with guidance and advice on how to proceed in the new environment of dealing with an enemy that is not fighting for a nation, but rather for a radical religious ideology. The traditional rules and policies for dealing with enemies and prisoners focused on enemies from a specific country and who were in the nation’s military. The tragedy of 9/11 woke up the United States to face the new reality of the dangers facing the nation, international terrorism.
It is interesting for us to watch the intense outcry from liberals toward Yoo because similar passion has not been seen in condemnation of terrorists, who do not follow any type of rules of warfare. As an April New York Post editorial column states, “What’s truly shocking is that America could be debating whether to push and slap prisoners who may harbor critical life-saving information, even as its ruthless enemies kidnap U.S. soldiers, shoot them in the head and leave them to rot.” Since 9/11 and the war on terror, the political left has put much effort and passion into repeatedly accusing the Bush administration of torture and war crimes.
As shown in the propagandizing of the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004, the left and also much of the media will do anything to attack the president, even if their methods hurt U.S. efforts for peace. In any time of war there will be mistakes made by a small few that run counter to what America stands for, but for the left to hold onto U.S. mistakes for political advantage only provides more fuel to the terrorists.
The efforts by liberals to remove Yoo from his teaching position at the Boalt School of Law and calling him an “enemy to the constitution” are very misguided. We are proud to have someone at UC Berkeley who has directly experienced the challenges our nation faced after 9/11 and contributed to the fight against international terrorism. While Yoo’s memos were discontinued a short time later, his efforts and advice to the U.S. government on how to handle terrorist interrogation was vital against a new type of enemy in the beginning of the 21st century.
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