U.S. Democracy Under Siege. Special Comment by Dick Kazan

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

U.S. Democracy Under Siege. Special Comment by Dick Kazan (posted with permission of the author)
http://saneramblings.com


The U.S. is a great country for it has often been a beacon of light and compassion to humanity. And it has welcomed immigrants including my family and probably yours, and offered them freedom and opportunity on a scale unprecedented in human history.

And the U.S. has welcomed new ideas and new products from all over the world, helping to uplift China, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore and South Korea and many other countries in the process.

But the biggest winner of these open borders and open minds has been the American people, who are offered a vast selection of products and services at low prices. And foreign companies doing business in America like Toyota and Honda employ Americans by the millions.

But recently, we as Americans have become frightened, as we have been lied to and manipulated by our government about the dangers it claims lurk in every corner. As a result, our government's actions now threaten our democracy, as you will see.

The Bush Administration used 9/11 to justify invading two countries and threatens to invade others in its "war on terror." Instead of building alliances to diplomatically resolve issues, it prepares to move quickly and alone to take preemptive military action to supposedly keep us safe.

These are not the actions of a confident nation but one that views itself as under seige. And as a result of its fears, it uses its military as a primary tool to conduct international relations rather than to use it as an absolute last resort.

As part of its new preemptive military action policy, the U.S. invaded and still occupies Iraq to "protect" us from what it claimed were their "weapons of mass destruction."

That invasion and occupation has cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives and caused millions of Iraqis to flee their devastated nation and there is no end in sight to the suffering there. Our President has escalated the war and with 160,000 U.S. troops and with about 180,000 private contractors, the U.S. has well over 300,000 people there.

The U.S. military budget has skyrocketed and is now larger than the military budgets of China, India, Great Britain and Russia combined! And because we don't have the money to pay this massive bill, we borrow against our future as we plunge our nation ever deeper into debt.

The U.S. runs secret prisons and the Hell Hole that is Guantanamo, torturing prisoners, few of whom have been charged with any crime, as it holds them indefinitely. It no longer honors the Geneva Convention for humane treatment of combatants and often ignores the United Nations, which the U.S. was instrumental in founding after World War 2 and proudly located it on its shores.

And Mr. Bush calls himself "the decider" and threatens to wage war on Iran and any other nation or group he calls "terrorists," or he claims "harbors terrorists." But according to the Constitution, only Congress can declare war, not the President.

And Mr. Bush's "war on terror" is a contradiction in terms. To go to war is to attack someone. What does that make us to him? What does that make us to the innocent men, women and children who are abruptly in the line of fire of our weapons of mass destruction? Our military calls them "collateral damage," but as we have seen in Iraq, using whatever terminology, they are just as dead, their families just as devastated and their nation just as decimated.

As if this wasn't enough, Mr. Bush also wants to install an "anti-missile defense system" near Russia's borders to "protect" Eastern Europe from Iran's nuclear weapons, although Iran has no such weapons. Russia is irate and has accused the Bush Administration of trying to reinstitute the Cold War arms race, which endangered the entire planet.

So as a result of the Bush Administration's "war on terror," the world is a far more dangerous place than it was on 9/11, with the chance of another attack on U.S. soil increased dramatically.

And Mr. Bush's claim "we have to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here" is illogical. Foreign and domestic terrorists know where to find us, just as the perpetrators of 9/11 and Timothy McViegh did.

Should another attack happen on U.S. soil, will we suspend our Constitution in a bout of hysteria and operate under martial law? Or will we wisely control our emotions and deal with the horrific pain and suffering, as we investigate the attack and use alliances to bring the perpetrators to justice. This is what we could have done with the Arab world after 9/11.

Instead, we squandered those opportunities and decimated Iraq and our standing in the global community. And in the end, it isn't the terrorists who can destroy our democracy, that is something only we can do.

Speaking of our democracy, on the home front, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, to "protect" us the Bush Administration conducts warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens and believes it has the right to seize those citizens and their property under the Military Commissions Act if it chooses to do so.

And if the government declares those U.S. citizens "terrorists," it believes it doesn't have to put them on trial, it can just suspend their legal rights and hold them indefinitely.

As a little more icing on this bitter cake, to ensure that its perspective of the news is presented to the American people in its most favorable light, the Bush Administration attempts to intimidate the media. It does so by cutting off access to the President to journalists who don't cooperate and it makes crucial information difficult to obtain as a matter of "National Security."

And recently, Mr. Bush and Vice President Cheney violated the law when they refused to allow the government to audit their Presidential and Vice Presidential documents.

Yet for the moment, many Americans are upset because President Bush pardoned Scooter Libby, a top White House staffer, just before Mr. Libby was to go to jail. Mr. Bush used the word "clemency" to make it more palatable. But to me, it was not a big thing. Presidents since George Washington have pardoned people.

One might argue that in the U.S. criminal justice system, convicts often cooperate with prosecutors to reduce or avoid jail time and that Mr. Libby through his lawyer may have told Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney his client was prepared to cooperate with the special prosecutor if Mr. Bush didn't waive his prison sentence. At this point, that's just speculation. But to me, even that is not a big thing, comparatively speaking.

The greater issue for me is the Bush Administration has repeatedly violated the Constitution it was sworn to uphold. As a result, there are numerous grounds for impeachment of the President and Vice President if Congress will act. Thus far, they have not and therefore there is no accountability of the Executive Branch of our government.

And the Bush Administration has established precedents that if left unchallenged, endanger our democracy, whether in Mr. Bush's hands or in the hands of future presidents. Our democracy is under siege and shaken to its foundation.

But I don't want to leave you with doom and gloom. for we as a nation have so much to offer mankind. And we could again be a bastian for freedom and respected all over the world.

The compassion of the American people could serve humanity rather than to have our hysteria threaten it, and among our people we have the resources to solve problems that have perplexed mankind for ages. And we have the productive capability and the compassionate desire to help others, not wall them out or threaten to annihilate them.

With wiser leadership we could again become a glowing beacon of light and of wisdom the world so badly needs from us.

Dick
http://saneramblings.com

[Boo Boo]

1. "One might argue that in the U.S. criminal justice system, convicts often

cooperate with prosecutors to reduce or avoid jail time and that Mr. Libby through his lawyer may have told Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney his client was prepared to cooperate with the special prosecutor if Mr. Bush didn't waive his prison sentence. At this point, that's just speculation. But to me, even that is not a big thing, comparatively speaking."

What an incredibly ignorant thing to say! :wow:

Oh, well... the rest of it was good.