Supporting racial profiling but opposing internment

Submitted by Jonathan Rick (United States), Jan 5, 2005 at 08:23

1. One can support racial profiling while opposing racial internment. Yes, the latter is the logical extension of the war, especially in wartime, but there's a qualitative difference, a line I'm unwilling to cross, between screening for young Arab and Muslim men at airports and interning 100,000 Japanese Americans.

2. Even if, as Malkin writes, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians excluded military officers and intelligence experts, I think we should consider the reflections of Earl Warren, who as California Attorney General strongly supported internment:

"I have since deeply regretted the removal order and my own testimony advocating it, because it was not in keeping with our American concept of freedom and the rights of citizens. Whenever I thought of the innocent little children who were torn from home, school friends and congenial surroundings, I was conscience-stricken" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_internment).

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