Quote:
Originally posted by Penske_Account
[re Iraq] ... is not Social Security reform; it is not a capital-gains tax cut. It is a war, or whatever euphemism one wishes to use to describe resisting the up-and-running forces that planned 9/11, London, Madrid, the foiled airline-bomb plot and all the other murders of innocent civilians whose crime was that they affronted radical Islam.[/b]
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Sure, up to a point, but one cannot hide behind the "war" justification forever. Which is what Bush is trying to do. This is not a "war" in the historic sense and it this so-called "war"will probably be perpetual, so does that mean that - forever - we suspend what makes us unique and attractive, our beliefs in indivdual civil rights, our beliefs that the protection of the status quo is not supreme? Are we going to let fear, as justified by a "war" against fear, erode what acually made us the freeest society ever?
Bush is using this "war" against "terror," as most obviously manifested by police actions against shitwads (Iraq, the Taliban) who never really threatened us, to justify spying, mistreatment of prisoners, secret facilities in countries that we otherwise despise, and blatant attacks against what we have traditionally believed the Constitution protected (to the point that even the current Supreme Court gets pepsis) . And it is all in the name of security. But security always fences liberty, and we have almost always chosen liberty as the primary ideal. Despots hide behind "security" as a justification for their actions. Way back, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and he was wrong to do so, but at least he was up front about it. Bush is making the same sort of challenge against rights/beliefs that are the cornerstone of our society, under the pretext of this so-called "war," but this is a "war" that will not end in during the next couple of generations.
I may be more pessimistic about our future than others (as human intolerance achieves technoligal ability), but I would prefer that we go down fighting. To do otherwise reminds me of saying, "Hey, at least Mussolini made the trains run on time."
Lessin (War is Peace) SF
