Arstechnica.com has a great write up of a panel debate held at the University of Chicago, called “Defending Democracy: Balancing the Fight for Civil Liberties with the Fight Against Terrorism” . It’s interesting, because this is a very serious problem. (Incidentally, you should read the late Rhenquist’s All the Laws but One . Same topic, extremely well written.)
I thought there were a few points worth highlighting. First, Geoffery Stone made what is probably the most important point to keep in mind during any of these discussions (and particularly relevent since this week, most of the provisions of the Patriot Act are now permanent) — the “Global War On Terror” isn’t a war in the traditional sense, with a specific enemy and once we defeat him, the war is over. It’s a war on anyone who wants to hurt us, and taken that way, it’s never going to end. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight them, but it does mean that when we talk about what to do to make it easier to fight them we need to keep asking ourselves first “is this a characteristic of America we want to give up forever?”
Second, I thought this passage was particularly troubling:
“At some point in his talk, Posner confided in the audience that he believes that Osama Bin Laden is “actually winning.” In support of this proposition, he cited the election of a religious fanatic as the head of Iran, the Hamas electoral victory, the cartoon controversy, the Paris riots, and other recent examples of the rise of Islamic anti-Western sentiment. I don’t quite recall where he went after making this point, because I sort of tuned out, lost as I was in the seeming contradiction of declaring OBL the “winner” during the course of a sustained defense of the Bush administration’s post-9/11 antiterror policies.”
Weither one likes it or not, religious fundamentalists are there the world round. In America, religious fundamentalists carry out election (and other) crusades against abortion, gay “rights”, the death penalty, you name it. We’re not immune to the result.
But to define as winning (even merely as a straw man so that you can grab even more power)
- the fact that in five years, everything “bad” about the world hasn’t simply gone away
- the fact that when you present an TRUE opportunity for the palestinians to vote they unsuprisingly vote for the party who is most vocal about stamping out the boogieman they blame everything from poverty to hangnails on (Isreal)
- the fact that muslims are a growing percentage of European nations and frequently on the receiving end of racism
- some extremist Islamic leaders actually encourage rioting of the sort that happened after the danish cartoons
to define all that as “winning” at the same time as you support the Saudis, with their state run islamic schools that literally preech hatred of the west and American ideals, that’s just too much to absorb.
What I want to know is when will the doublethink end? When will the american people stop believing anything they hear because the believe the talking head they’re listening to is always right and actually THINK about what they’re hearing?
Sadly, I expect that’s about the same time the GWOT has no more enemies.
Maybe
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