Knowing the Enemy

Anonymous commented on yesterday's post: "I beleive that if we take the time to get to know ourselves we will in fact find out that we are slowly becoming terrorists ourselves." I couldn't agree with him or her more. There are only two differences between a suicide bombing in Israel that kills only innocents and a Hellfire missile attack in Pakistan that kills only innocents. The perpetrator of a Hellfire missile attack doesn't die in the blast and a Hellfire missile attack is carried out by a nation-state. Both attacks are carried out by an entity attempting to effect a change in another with the intent of damaging the enemy. So where's the moral difference?

Likewise, does it matter who kidnaps and tortures? There are stories of CIA renditions that would, if the perpetrator would change, sound perfectly normal coming from the enemy in the war on terror. Again, the only difference is that the kidnapper and torturer is the CIA, an instrument of U. S. national power. We have allowed our President to detain U. S. citizens indefinitely without access to an attorney in direct violation of our Constitution. The President has claimed the right to do pretty much anything he damned well pleases in violation of the separation of powers and of the fourth amendment to the Constitution. Arlen Specter has introduced language into the Patriot Act that, if passed, would limit demonstrations at all "events of national significance" regardless if the President or Vice President are in attendance in violation of the First Amendment. So don't wear your "no blood for oil" shirt to the Super Bowl....

The list goes on. On the home front, corruption has become the norm in Republican Washington. Corporate and political interests have discovered that the best way to get something into law is to bribe a congressman with campaign financing to stick an earmark into a bill. Tom Delay has gone even farther, actively laundering corporate money for use in Texas campaigns in violation of the state's campaign finance law. The new House Majority Leader, elected to reform the House, once handed out tobacco money checks on the House floor. Republican Washington is fighting against a ban on lobbyist-funded travel and no one will entertain the idea of publicly funded elections. The Bushit Budget gives more money to defense while taking it from the poor even as the Shrub pushes for tax cuts for the wealthy....

One could go on and on with the abuses, the third-world corruption and the terrorism inflicted on other nations by the U. S. The nation I served to defend has become a nation of bullies, of corrupt congressmen and of leaders with only their own narrow interests in mind. It is no longer a nation of fairness and justice, no longer a shining beacon for the rest of the world. We, with our tactics, our bullying, our corruption and our ignorance, are right down there in the mud with those we hope to defeat someday. Nonetheless, I love that nation and believe it can once again be what I would have fought to defend. We just seriously need some new leadership.