We have now learned that the President has justified his abuse of the NSA to spy on Americans with the 9-11 use of force resolution. Indeed, this resolution is the legal basis for the vast majority of the civil liberties violations in this nation (for example, it is also the basis for the enemy combatant doctrine). Meanwhile, Dick Cheney attended the swearing in of the first Afghan parliament in thirty years yesterday, and the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions are set to expire on December 31, 2005, which also indicates the time frame the Congress was thinking of when it initially authorized the War on Terorism approach. Like the 9-11 use of force resolution, these conroversial provisions have been abused by the administration.
We didn't need a war resolution to fight terrorism. We needed a war resolution to justify the invasion of Afghanistan for the purpose of getting terrorists. The need for that resolution is over. Afghanistan is now our loyal ally and unlike Iraq, the nation has an elected government whose legitimacy is widely acknowledged and a military capable of maintaining law and order without being propped up by large numbers of U.S. force.
Impeachment is not a realistic option, even if it is justified, because there are at least 34 Republican Senators in Congress willing to jump of a cliff like lemmings to walk in lockstep with President Bush.
But, why not repeal the 9-11 use of force authorization? This wouldn't stop us from pursuing terrorists, but would make clear that a "war" is not the proper model for doing so and that terrorists must be pursued consistent with the law. The war phase of the war on terror is over. Al-Queda has been routed from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is hiding under some distant rock. We know who was directly involved in 9-11 itself for the most part, and those involved are virtually all captured or dead. Many senior Al-Queda officials who were in place on 9-11, even if they had no involvement in the attack are also dead or captured or have been replaced in the organization's hierarchy. There is no longer a place for large military units in fighting Al-Queda. The anti-terrorism effort now needs to return to traditional investigation and law enforcement approaches. If we don't, we are learning, we will lose the cooperation of the European allies we need to win. Wars are won more based on who your allies are than based on what forces you bring to the field yourself.
So, we should end the war, continue the fight, and return the rule of law to our nation. A commitment to rule of law and democratic principals, in the long term, does more to prevent terrorism than anything else.
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Rage Plagues
Rage plagues my heart and mind when I see inequitable causes burnt in stone and sand for the sake of commerce greed.
The cause of war comes forth in many ways, but not as mighty as the one we shall see, like a blinded tiger, or a wounded snake, war comes rushing in, bent on blood, and death.
Your sons lay in bloodstained fields, while your daughters mourn as they bury memories of lost cold souls that had no end, for a life that was hot with passion.
Power is a corrupt thing that only we can give, and we give it freely to those that would slay the earth in all its blossom barren beauty.
If we keep our power, and let it not stay in vain. Seek the rage that haunts all men’s souls, there would be no power, but our own.
The gates of hell opened that day, when Nostradamus’s words rang throughout the heavens like a voice from the past, and the shock wave rippled round the earth like a comet’s tail made of pure icy glass.
The time is near, the horsemen I see bearing down on the earth from sea to bloody sea.
Tomorrow brings another day, more blood and violence, thieves in flight, new laws and nations, masquerading for us, as if to fight for our plights.
While you play your games of fantasy, in luxury, on the highest mountains of the gambling state, comes the woeful warring winds.
While children play their games of war in fields, so gray, round trees so bare, of sandy earth, comes the woeful warring winds.
While leaders plot their profit for the day, and make their women slave over hot unwanted work, comes the woeful warring winds.
And all the while we sit and wait in our hypnotic state, of dreams that we save, comes the woeful warring winds, comes the woeful warring winds.
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