U.S. Forces Delivered Justice

That's quite a profound statement, don't you think?

It aired on the news countless times the other day. After hearing it for the 42nd time, I started to wonder what it really meant. "U.S. Forces" is pretty obvious, as is "delivered" (though I've often wondered why "delivered" doesn't mean "to have ones liver removed"). But what about justice?

Mirriam-Webster says this and more about justice:

1 a : the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments b : JUDGE c : the administration of law; especially : the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity

Something's not right here - "c" talks about the administration of the law. I seem to remember something about "innocent until proven guilty" from grade school social studies class, I thought so anyway.

But grade school was quite a while ago; times change, people change, and more importantly, rules change - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but they change nonetheless.

Or maybe there was a footnote tied to that "innocent until proven guilty" line that I didn't grasp as a yen year old - you know, something like "Innocent until proven guilty unless someone important deems that an unnecessary step." I mean, O.J. Simpson was found innocent but still had to pay millions in a civil suit - so maybe things aren't as cut and dried as "innocent until proven guilty" would have one believe.

Don't get me wrong, I'm with you guys - al-Zarqawi was a bad man (cornfield bad) - I watch the same news coverage as everyone else does. But let's be realistic - we didn't deliver justice, we completely circumvented it - no trial, no jury, no nothing, just a press conference. No, we didn't deliver justice, we delivered a pair of big freaking bombs, express mail in fact. It certainly makes me wonder what the phrase "and justice for all" really means..

Unless.. Of course, maybe the bombs were named "Justice".. Yes, that must be it.