WHERE GOETH THE USA?
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Jake Rufer Mason County Progressive
Now we have a continuing problem in our country.
Assume for a moment that I make a scathing speech condemning U.S. action In Afghanistan on the basis that the United States had no interest in pursuing action against the Taliban.
Assume further that some agency within the Department of Defense of the USA decided that my action fell within the parameters of Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Assume again that I am detained by whatever U.S. agency is responsible for detaining persons such as myself and charged me with violating Section 1021 on the basis that I have given aid and comfort to the enemy with whom we are at war.
I am not here leading up to a defense -- No, I merely am trying to examine the the parameters of what can be done to me by my country under that which is stated in statute to be Articles of War.
Given the above, can I be whisked away to a secluded interrogation center in Hungary? Now, what I've read on the Articles of War, that would not be legally tolerated (under international law).
Yet, best reports suggest that the US does send such folks as I (as described above) to foreign lands where local folks are not particularly limited by their interrogation processes. I now might face the water board. During my 19 years in a naval intelligence unit, two or three of the unit members took their two week annual training in a school where each and every one experienced the water board. Frightening was their report. And I suspect they received minimal treatment.
Where goeth the USA? If the Obama Administration appeals its loss on the constitutionality of Section 1021, as ruled by Justice Katherine Forrest at the District Court level, will the Court of Appeals sustain the trial court? How about the Supreme Court if the case winds up there?
These are questions I dearly would like to have answered because I am very angry about the habitual trend of our presidents to simply announce that we are at war and, in consequence, hold all accountable.
There have been too many wars: War on Poverty, War on Drugs, and War on Terrorists -- and none of them have an identifiable enemy.
And I'm overlooking all the other wars we have initiated: the Mexican War wherein the U.S. stole the S.W. portion of the US from Mexico; the Spanish American War which gave U.S. control of Cuba and the Philippines; the wars against Native Americans as the U.S. conquered them to the west of the Atlantic Seaboard; the marines sent to Central America on behalf of the United Fruit Company (bananas for all); our provoked revolution against Columbia so as to create Panama near the turn of the century; our actions against Grenada because of alleged Cuban involvement; our invasion against Panama merely to depose a drug running dictator -- and on and on it goes.
And when our flag majestically passes with the troops in review, I do dutifully stand and bow to the honor of our country. Why do I do that ? Why do I do that?
Very truly,
Jake
Photo: www.sodahead.com
By having all things be a "war" (on drugs, on poverty, etc.) the very word "war" is reduced to something with a lesser charge on it than it should have.
ReplyDeleteAnd this new way we fight with drones, inside countries we are not at war with, killing from the air, killing children and innocents a good part of the time, is about as un-American as it gets - in my humble opinion.
America has strayed far from the days when we took the high road because we had clean hands... our hands are no longer clean, and each day we further restrict the freedoms of our citizens, while our leaders talk about freedoms for the people of other nations (think Egypt).
It is very hard to know what to do, on a national level, so locally we need to work that much harder to protect our families and ourselves: Our governmental agencies and our elected officials are not going to protect us.
Citizen involvement is all that is left to us.
GET INVOLVED, CITIZENS.