Let's
be honest, even Al Qaeda + Saddam + Kim at the apexes of their power
did not really constitute an existential threat to the US and our
interests. They are vile and inconvenient and sometime lethal and would
be better behind bars, but they can't end our way of life. The Soviets
could have ended us at a moment's notice, and we lived under that cloud
for over 30 years. We bulked up our military and engaged in plenty of
proxy dirty wars to gain some leverage, but we didn't reinvent our
entire security apparatus and turn our backs on what made us great to
try to destroy communism everywhere it bred.
But that is exactly what we have done post-9/11. The CIA
changed from an intelligence gathering outfit (that was Congressionally
prohibited from assassinating or torturing anyone, although they
probably did it from time to time) into a shadow parallel military. Both
they and the Pentagon now have Presidential authority to kill anyone,
anywhere. Obama's admin. claims that B.O. wants to be the last word on
the decisions so he can personally make sure that we are only killing
people that we really must kill. And he is the Chosen One, so we can
trust that he is making the right call every time - even though the info
that he is basing the decision on is pre-filtered and doctored by
military handlers whose career progression is based on body counts. Hey
Mr. ConLaw prof - that is why we have courts, juries, and trials to
reduce the risk of bias and error (and our courts still get plenty of
cases wrong too, even capital punishments, so how will you and your boys
do better?). Now there is no due process, no evidence sharing, just a
drone strike or a wetwork team kicking down a door in the middle of the
night.
The terrorists know they could never end the USA, even if
their dreams came true and they got a hold of fissile material and
diplomat access to our homeland. The USA is a lot more than just our
land, buildings, people, and money. The USA is an idea, and a set of
values worth practicing and propagating (and in some cases fighting
for). The American ideas of justice, human rights, and egalitarianism
are almost unprecedented in history - and that is what we've lost. The
terrorists didn't take it from us, we jettisoned it of our own accord.
Ostensibly to make us safer, but it was ultimately our call. And a
liberal president did a lot of the damage. As Jeremy Scahill said,
Obama's sad legacy is selling undemocratic, un-American behaviors to the
liberal base. Sure the economy is top on our minds, and no one cares of
some nameless ragheads get whacked, so we are guilty too because we
didn't protest when Obama betrayed America's values (at the very least,
he rolled over when the military-intelligence community wanted to
surpass the Bush years and cross the line). Scahill is legit and
trustworthy - he is the guy who exposed Blackwater's BS in Iraq, and has
taken on warlords for years (fighting the sword with the pen).
We crossed that line so far we can't even see it in the dust
behind us. Some might say it's no big deal, and it's not like we set up
death camps. But is the bar that low? Over a hundred human beings are
being held indefinitely at Gitmo without charge and without disclosing
evidence against them. If they are so dangerous, then put them on trial
and prove it. We kidnapped and exported hundreds of terror "suspects" to
repressive nations to be tortured (ironically Syria helped us with that
during the Bush years, and the money we paid them for services rendered
probably bought weapons that are now being used against the rebels).
Our most elite soldiers have the authority to raid any private home in
Afghanistan just because some shady informants claimed that a baddie
lives there (when in fact they are just using the US to settle a blood
feud). And with the Al-Awlaki case, our government has sanctioned the
killing of a US citizen overseas in total violation of their civil
rights and international law. And what was his crime? Hate speech.
Similar speech that the KKK, redneck militias, and even some radio hosts
routinely get away with. But they're not Muslims. What's worse is I
just learned the US also drone killed Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son and
also US citizen (see Democracy Now link). What was his crime? As far as I
know, he had the wrong father. He "may" become a threat some day. What
the hell are we thinking? What happened to innocent until proven guilty
beyond a reasonable doubt? You can't be guilty of something you haven't
done yet. It's pathetic that we even need to be having this discussion.
What kind of nation does those things? Red China - guilty on some
counts but not all. Iran - ditto. Cuba - they're the Red Cross compared
to us. Maybe the USSR and Nazi Germany are the only modern regimes that
come close. If we have resorted to such tactics to "defend ourselves
against radical Islam", then we have lost the war on terror. And now our
jingoism and vengeance are coming down on Tsarnaev. He is going to get
mob justice at best, and it's scary to hear the things that even some
prominent politicians and media personalities are saying about what we
should do to him.
Yes, I know that some of those outrageous tactics have "done
some good" for us, killed "bad people", and maybe averted attacks (or
maybe they didn't). But what about all the side effects? As I said,
Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and drones are some of the top reasons why Muslims
hate us, and are powerful Jihadi recruiting tools. A US hit squad
accidentally took out an Afghan police commander and his family
(including 2 pregnant women), who was accused of being a Taliban from
bad intel. When the soldiers realized it, they tried to sanitize the
crime scene and told the town that the Taliban actually killed the
family, but the truth got out. He and his family risked their lives for
years to help the US fight the Taliban, but now after this tragedy and
outrage, they are so mad they want to blow up Americans. We are losing
the war on terror when we turn devoted friends into enraged enemies.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG08Df01.html (another indication that we have lost: this story is totally absent in mainstream Western media, assuming it's true)
Maybe some are giving Osama too much credit, but accounts
suggest that he knew Al Qaeda could never defeat America and establish a
global Caliphate. But he wanted to execute some sufficiently shocking
attacks to whip America into a panicked frenzy. We would bankrupt
ourselves foolishly trying to defend every square inch of our land
(remember how we even stationed troops at the Mall of America after
9/11?). And our hubris would lead us to invade Muslim lands like the
Crusaders and imperialists who came before us. We would have to fight on
their terms, and they knew they could outlast us as we sacrifice our
brave young men to an unwinnable situation. Terrorism (and even
guerrilla war to some extent) is not about destroying one's enemy. It's
about generating enough shock and fear to get your enemy to make bad
decisions and engage in detrimental behavior. Then you just sit back and
let your enemy do the work for you. And we're doing a heckuva job with
that. Muslim extremists have suffered heavy losses in this war, and Al
Qaeda is barely what it was in 2001, but the America idea is the bigger
loser.
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