The courageous needn't fear (Campos: Rocky Mountain News)

[struggle4progress]

January 3, 2006
'Give me liberty or give me death," Patrick Henry defiantly declared at the dawn of the American republic. In the light of recent comments from some of America's present-day leaders, it appears that Henry was laboring under a misapprehension. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, responding to critics of President Bush's apparently illegal domestic spying program, has reminded us that "none of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead," while Sen. Trent Lott answered criticisms of the program from fellow Republicans by declaring, "I want my security first. I'll deal with all the details after that."

Updated for contemporary use, Henry's quote would read, "Give me liberty, or give me a slight theoretical decrease in the already microscopic risk I face from terrorism. On second thought, forget about liberty." While this revised version does not roll trippingly off the tongue, it captures the logic of the Bush administration's foreign policy.

This policy features a fundamental contradiction. On the one hand, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers are being ordered to risk their lives in Iraq, while their families shoulder enormous emotional and economic hardships. On the other, they're required to do this while the leaders of a nation made up of what our government seems to assume are hedonistic cowards emit squeaks of fear such as those that escaped Cornyn and Lott last week.

In a democracy, this is an unsustainable policy. It's both politically impossible and morally disgusting to expect one group of Americans to exhibit stoic courage and extreme self-sacrifice, while the rest of us are encouraged to be fear-ridden compulsive shoppers who squeal with outrage when, for example, it's suggested that we might forgo a tax cut in order to pay to properly equip the soldiers who protect us. <snip>

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4358266,00.html

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. K & R, Paul Campos is one of the few voices of reason at the RMN.

I quit my subscription because of their gwb-worship editorials, articles and photos.

However, they have a handful of brave and articulate columnists, of which Campos is one. MKJ

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Yes, Patrick Henry is probably turning in his grave along with all

of our Founding Fathers.

[meow2u3]

3. As one DUer put it

Pukes: Take my liberty; I'm scared to death.

[ovidsen]

4. A core issue

Thank you, Mr. Campos.

When a con tells me that the US hasn't endured a terrorist attack since 2001 because of President Bush, I counter that the US hasn't been attacked since then in spite of President Bush.

This column illustrates very nicely how and why the Bush administration wants us all to run around aimlessly like chickens with our heads cut off.