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Thom's blog
This is NOT who we are…
“The character of our country has to be measured in part, not by what we do when things are easy, but what we do when things are hard.” Those were the words of President Obama, when he was asked over the summer about the CIA’s use of torture in the months and years after 9/11.
With the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report today, it’s become abundantly clear that when times got tough, America buckled under the pressure. We lost sight of the values that built this country, and of the ideals that have made this country great. That’s something that would deeply upset Abraham Lincoln.
Back on April 24th, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed General Order No. 100, otherwise known as the Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States, or the Lieber Code.
The Lieber Code was a set of instructions signed by President Lincoln, which dictated how Union soldiers should conduct themselves during war time, and how they should treat prisoners of war. The instructions themselves were written by Francis Lieber, Lincoln’s top wartime legal authority.
The Lieber Code was so influential and powerful that many of its key components were included in the Hague Convention of 1899, and even into the Geneva Conventions and Nuremburg trials. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, we forgot about the Lieber Code, about the laws of war, and about basic human rights.
So, what exactly was in the Lieber Code?
-Thom
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