The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle thinks the Nuremberg Trials were “show trials.”

Mmmm . . . I am in no way unhappy with the outcome of Nuremberg, but my understanding is that most international lawyers regard them basically as show trials. I’m not sure they’re a great example to use.

There is an almost unfathomable level of ignorance on display here. Steven D at Booman Tribune smacks McArdle down pretty hard, but my past work for and deep respect of Senator Chris Dodd demands I say more.

The Nuremberg Trials are mostly regarded as the highest point in Western respect for the rule of law. They are the antithesis of show trials, which is incidentally what Churchill and Stalin wanted. American leadership ensured that our respect of the rule of law was what defined us, not our desire to punish an enemy who we had just defeated.

Senator Dodd’s father, Tom Dodd, was a lead prosecutor at Nuremberg. Dodd recently published his father’s living history of his experience at the trials in a living history titled Letters From Nuremberg. On the campaign trail, Senator Dodd would frequently reference Nuremberg when talking about the necessity to defend the rule of law here in America. His favorite quote, something that I have since committed to memory, was from chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg, Justice Robert Jackson:

“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”

This is the essence of the rule of law and the importance of the Nuremberg Trials. It may well be the most significant action taken by the American government in the 20th to establish ourselves as defenders of the rule of law. The Bush administration has done immeasurable damage to our standing in the world by approving policies of torture, extraordinary rendition, and secret prisons – among many, many other things. McArdle’s glib dismissal of history and law is only shocking to the extent that she purports to be a libertarian. Otherwise such a passive acceptance of the abandonment of the rule of law in America is fairly indicative of what we have seen from the American press, a fact that goes a long way to explaining why the Bush administration has not been held accountable for their lawlessness.