Chief Bones
Forums Grumpy Old Man
The killing fields of Iraq continue to run with the blood of warriors and citizens (men, women, and children) - innocent participants and non-participants alike. When will it end, this is the question being asked by millions of people the world over. The only person that might be able to answer this question climbs onto his soap box and mouths platitudes, slogans and tap dances to music that only he can hear every time he is put on the spot. If it is not the president trying to hide behind the wrapper of national security and patriotism, then it’s his direct representatives and members of his administration going into attack mode to attack those who don‘t agree with the administration policies and political stances. It used to be that an American used to be able to comment on administration issues and policies without fear of reprisal on the part of their government.
This is no longer true - the Patriot Act has changed the playing field when Americans question government actions. How sad - our forefathers would not recognize the way that their democratic principles have been twisted to fit a changed world environment. We can now hold our own citizens in durance vile without allowing judicial representation, or disclosing the charges. Not only are these unconstitutional violations considered legal, it is now possible to get a phone tap on an American’s phone by going to a ‘secret’ court where a ‘secret’ judge will sign a ‘secret’ order to allow the police or a government agency to place a ‘secret’ tap on a legal citizen’s private conversations. I realize this is not a 100% verbatim definition of the Patriot Act but it comes darn close.
And now we have a President and Vice President that are fighting tooth and nail to keep congress from passing legislation that would officially ban the use of any form of torture to elicit information from any prisoner our country holds (either here in the US or anywhere in the world where we house prisoners). This would apply to military prisoners and suspected terrorists alike. Bush and Chaney’s stance is that it is alright for everyone except the CIA - they want the CIA to be exempted from this new legislation. What Bush and Chaney seem to be blind to is the fact that our society is an open society and that everything they say in public and much of what they say in private is known around the world bare minutes after they have uttered their utter nonsense. Many of Bush’s stances have only added fuel to the fires of hatred aimed at our country.
When reports began to circulate about the excesses at Abu Ghraib, President Bush had the audacity to appear before the world’s press and publicly state that the scandal was the work of “a few American troops who dishonored our country.” Seven or eight troopers who had no training on how to run a prison full of “enemy combatants” allowed a few bad apples to lead them into “abuse” that was more collegiate hazing than torture and were treated as scapegoats by the administration and military hierarchy. Don’t believe I am excusing this kind of treatment of prisoners because I am not. Lack of a public policy lays directly at the feet of Bush and his administration supporters and directly contributed to the standard operating procedures used when dealing with these suspected enemies and suspected terrorists.
Why do I blame Bush - it was Bush’s war was it not? He was and is responsible for setting the policies and tenor of treatment for how we deal with Iraq and Iraqi issues.
Now we have liberal whackos who seem to think it is a simple thing to "just bring our people home" - how blind do they think the rest of us are? It is too late to just pull out of Iraq - our country can't stand to have another Vietnam on our record and that is exactly what we would face if we leave a "broken" Iraq. After all the rest of the world believes that we broke it (Iraq) and it's our responsibility to fix it (Iraq). Until that mission is completed, we are a captive to our own humanity and decency.
This is no longer true - the Patriot Act has changed the playing field when Americans question government actions. How sad - our forefathers would not recognize the way that their democratic principles have been twisted to fit a changed world environment. We can now hold our own citizens in durance vile without allowing judicial representation, or disclosing the charges. Not only are these unconstitutional violations considered legal, it is now possible to get a phone tap on an American’s phone by going to a ‘secret’ court where a ‘secret’ judge will sign a ‘secret’ order to allow the police or a government agency to place a ‘secret’ tap on a legal citizen’s private conversations. I realize this is not a 100% verbatim definition of the Patriot Act but it comes darn close.
And now we have a President and Vice President that are fighting tooth and nail to keep congress from passing legislation that would officially ban the use of any form of torture to elicit information from any prisoner our country holds (either here in the US or anywhere in the world where we house prisoners). This would apply to military prisoners and suspected terrorists alike. Bush and Chaney’s stance is that it is alright for everyone except the CIA - they want the CIA to be exempted from this new legislation. What Bush and Chaney seem to be blind to is the fact that our society is an open society and that everything they say in public and much of what they say in private is known around the world bare minutes after they have uttered their utter nonsense. Many of Bush’s stances have only added fuel to the fires of hatred aimed at our country.
When reports began to circulate about the excesses at Abu Ghraib, President Bush had the audacity to appear before the world’s press and publicly state that the scandal was the work of “a few American troops who dishonored our country.” Seven or eight troopers who had no training on how to run a prison full of “enemy combatants” allowed a few bad apples to lead them into “abuse” that was more collegiate hazing than torture and were treated as scapegoats by the administration and military hierarchy. Don’t believe I am excusing this kind of treatment of prisoners because I am not. Lack of a public policy lays directly at the feet of Bush and his administration supporters and directly contributed to the standard operating procedures used when dealing with these suspected enemies and suspected terrorists.
Why do I blame Bush - it was Bush’s war was it not? He was and is responsible for setting the policies and tenor of treatment for how we deal with Iraq and Iraqi issues.
Now we have liberal whackos who seem to think it is a simple thing to "just bring our people home" - how blind do they think the rest of us are? It is too late to just pull out of Iraq - our country can't stand to have another Vietnam on our record and that is exactly what we would face if we leave a "broken" Iraq. After all the rest of the world believes that we broke it (Iraq) and it's our responsibility to fix it (Iraq). Until that mission is completed, we are a captive to our own humanity and decency.
