Congress: Perpetual War to Become Law of the Land

Congress: Perpetual War to Become Law of the Land
"Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war"

George W. Bush committed the United States to fight a "global war on terror," which is the first time in this nation's history that military action has been authorized to fight an international war against a tactic.  The absurdity of that phrase should have made every American scream 'foul,' and ride that administration out of D.C. on a rail.  But in the wake of 9/11 most minds were infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, allowing the Bush administration to grotesquely expand government power while vigorously whittling away at constitutional rights.

The Obama administration was voted in to office to change the current course of this country.  Now, nearing the end of his four year term, not only has Obama not changed course, it is apparent that Obama's only real agenda was to grab the wheel and put the pedal to the metal.  

Obama followed in lock-step, continuing G.W.'s tradition of continuously launching carefully timed and coordinated fear campaigns by employing the threat of violence against the U.S. population  in order to attain their political ideologies and agendas.  Which, by the way, is the exact definition of terrorism.

Today, after 10-years of using terrorism against the American people while waging war against this tactic in the Middle East, costing trillions of dollars and over a million lives, we find ourselves at perpetual war against an ever-shifting, nameless, faceless enemy.

I wish it could be said that the government's current campaign, and actions over the past ten years merely resemble Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, but in fact it's a near carbon copy of it.  

In the novel, the fictional state of Oceania is at perpetual war with Eurasia and Eastasia; today, the U.S. uses its vast

military prowess to fight the tactic of terrorism around the world, whenever and wherever it is found. And worse, this objectiveless perpetual state of war against nameless, faceless enemies, may get vastly wider and a lot easier to wage.

According to the ACLU, Congress is preparing to vote on a new declaration of worldwide war without end, and without any defined enemies. A “sleeper provision” deep inside defense bills pending before Congress could become the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in American history.  It's difficult to stomach, or even comprehend how dangerous this provision of the  National Defense Authorization Act is.  It grants the president – and all presidents after him – sweeping new power to make war anywhere in the world, "regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the United States, or any imminent threat of an attack."  The proposed legislation would also

allow a president to use military force within the United States and against American citizens.  It also fails to define any kind of expiration date, and no criteria to determine when a this authority would end.

Personally, I believe that every member of Congress as well as the President should have to either fight on the front lines of any war or military action (or whatever new term they conjure to describe killing people in foreign countries), or send at least one of their children to fight.   

There is absolutely nothing more deadly to our liberty and inalienable rights than perpetual war, as was pointed out by one of the founding fathers of this once great Republic, James Madison, when he wrote,

No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of perpetual war.

Now Congress, in its apparent war on liberty, has reached an agreement to extend the Patriot Act, one of the first major salvos aimed at the Fourth Amendment, until June 1, 2015, allowing the continuation of expanded police powers, roving wiretaps, searches to be conducted prior to obtaining a warrant, detention of 'domestic terrorists,' (US citizens) who can be held without charge or legal representation for up to three months, and many other unconstitutional measures, all in the name of fighting that pesky tactic, terrorism.

Taking in to account that Congress' approval rating is hovering in the single digits and Obama's thirteen point 'Osama bump,' is already beginning to plummet despite their continual use of military-style psy-ops (psychological operations - a.k.a. terrorism) against the American public, and with the presidential elections on the horizon while American citizens grow ever more aware of all the lies and deceit and ever more wary of their relentless war propaganda, I truly fear that another large scale incident to whip the feeble minded back in to a state of fear and blinded by patriotism may be on their drawing table.

Then again, with the main-stream media turning a blind-eye and leaving the public largely in the dark to the horrific provision of the  National Defense Authorization Act, and the American people remaining relatively quiet while the federal government cries Havoc and lets loose the dogs of war as they bomb the snot out of Libya, provokes Syria, and rattles their sabers at Pakistan and Iran in their continued agenda to completely destabilize that region, the government may feel perfectly confident that they can do and get away with just about anything that they want to, with little public opposition or outcry.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of it all.  Imagine how peaceful the world would be if our foreign policy reflected the stern warning by George Washington during his farewell address in in 1796 when he said, "...beware foreign entanglements."

I'm not paranoid -- just a student of history...

            

The views expressed in this blog are mine, and should be yours as well.

  If you disagree, know that you are wrong and be okay with that.