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Independence, MO —
When did our perpetual at-war mentality begin?
Maybe, since the end of World War II, we simply never allowed it to stop. We know that by the end of the Eisenhower administration it had reached such a high level that the departing president strongly warned the nation of the inherent dangers in what he called our military-industrial complex.
We also know that from that time to the present our federal military budget has been about the same as the military budgets of all the rest of the world combined.
Sometimes it seems we have almost unconsciously adopted an at-war mentality.
The horrible 9/11 multiple suicide bomber attacks confirmed that we were, whether we liked it or not, at war with terrorists.
A few weak voices decried our loss of freedom through the Patriot Act, but for the most part our at-war mentality resulted in acquiescence.
Barack Obama, as a senator, denounced the Bush administration for what had been going on at Guantanamo but, as president, he has been extremely slow in closing it down, extending its prisoners due process or abiding by the Geneva Conventions.
Liberals and peace activists can rail all they want against the Bush/Cheney creation of a whole new category of persons, i.e. “enemy combatants,” but we still maintain that terrorism is primarily not a criminal offense but an act of war. This view reconfirms our belief that we, as a nation, are at war.
Only our commander-in-chief, not the courts, decides who is a terrorist. The battleground is the world, where we claim the right to target for death any terrorist, wherever they may be found – in a car with his family or friends, attending a wedding, or sleeping with his wife and children. Even U.S. citizens have no special immunity to this at-war legal determination.
This at-war mentality has given the CIA essentially carte blanche authority to kill whoever it wishes at any place on earth.
I am not a pacifist, and I do understand that deadly defense is sometimes necessary, but that does not remove the present danger of allowing an “at-war” mentality to unduly possess us.
When did our perpetual at-war mentality begin?
Maybe, since the end of World War II, we simply never allowed it to stop. We know that by the end of the Eisenhower administration it had reached such a high level that the departing president strongly warned the nation of the inherent dangers in what he called our military-industrial complex.
We also know that from that time to the present our federal military budget has been about the same as the military budgets of all the rest of the world combined.
Sometimes it seems we have almost unconsciously adopted an at-war mentality.
The horrible 9/11 multiple suicide bomber attacks confirmed that we were, whether we liked it or not, at war with terrorists.
A few weak voices decried our loss of freedom through the Patriot Act, but for the most part our at-war mentality resulted in acquiescence.
Barack Obama, as a senator, denounced the Bush administration for what had been going on at Guantanamo but, as president, he has been extremely slow in closing it down, extending its prisoners due process or abiding by the Geneva Conventions.
Liberals and peace activists can rail all they want against the Bush/Cheney creation of a whole new category of persons, i.e. “enemy combatants,” but we still maintain that terrorism is primarily not a criminal offense but an act of war. This view reconfirms our belief that we, as a nation, are at war.
Only our commander-in-chief, not the courts, decides who is a terrorist. The battleground is the world, where we claim the right to target for death any terrorist, wherever they may be found – in a car with his family or friends, attending a wedding, or sleeping with his wife and children. Even U.S. citizens have no special immunity to this at-war legal determination.
This at-war mentality has given the CIA essentially carte blanche authority to kill whoever it wishes at any place on earth.
I am not a pacifist, and I do understand that deadly defense is sometimes necessary, but that does not remove the present danger of allowing an “at-war” mentality to unduly possess us.
