Why we went to war in Iraq is anybody’s guess. Originally it was because Sadam had weapons of mass destruction including biological and possibly nuclear. When that was dispelled by fact, the mantra from this administration became that we are in Iraq in order to spread democracy and freedom. Lastly, since we have made Iraq the training ground for Islamic terrorists, we are now in Iraq, according to this administration, in order to stop terrorism from coming to our shores and destroying our way of life.
In numerous speeches, our President stated that the reason why the terrorists wanted to destroy this country, is that they want to destroy our way of life. They want to destroy our democracy and they both envy and hate our freedom.
Nothing could be further from the truth than “we are fighting terrorists abroad in order to ensure and protect our democracy”. After all it makes no sense that we would be fighting abroad to protect our democracy, when that same administration who champions that cause, is doing their best to take away our democracy here in the United States.
Over the past month, we have been hit with revelations of our government’s actions that are shocking to the fundamentals of our democracy and our way of government. We have learned that the Defense Department has been infiltrating and spying on U.S. citizens, whose sole indiscretion was opposition to the war in Iraq. It has come to light that the Defense Department has a 400 page list of organizations or groups that it has infiltrated and has spied upon. These organizations, by and large, are activists, anti-war demonstrators, and those who had the courage in a democracy to question its government’s actions. Some of the groups spied upon are known to be pacifists. How can our government with a straight face say that we are in Iraq to champion democracy, when the linchpin of democracy, that being dissent, is subjected to covert spying by our own Defense Department.
Unfortunately, this revelation was followed-up by the acknowledgment of our President, that on at least 45 different occasions, he has authorized wire tapping of communications from American citizens to other people abroad. He has acknowledged that he has done this without Court order as is required by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. According to our President, he has done this in order to make us safer. According to our President, he has done this in the name of national security.
Unfortunately, there is no totalitarian regime or fascist government on earth or in history that has not spied upon its people in the name of national security. There has never been a fascist or totalitarian regime that has not justified its actions as being in the best interest of the country or for the country’s safety or welfare. If we simply recap what has been going on in this country over the last several months, the score card looks ugly. It is now known that we have kidnaped people from off the streets, taken them to third countries or another nation where they have been tortured and have become shadow people. Actually, they don’t exist anymore. We have paid commentators and news people within this country to pretend that news stories are news stories when they were actually government informercials. Our government has paid off foreign reporters especially in Iraq to write articles championing our side. It has now come to light that they were written by our government. That is the same government which through the Defense Department has been spying and infiltrating peace groups while at the same time the National Security Agency with our President’s blessing and desires, has been spying on American citizens’ communications.
Yes with this score card, our President champions his behavior as one of supporting and fostering democracy abroad. Unfortunately, our President must have missed one of those civics classes when democracy was taught and freedoms were explained.
It makes no sense to destroy democracy and take away freedoms in the name of democracy. The President, never a good student, may have failed the chapter on democracy in civics class, but it is obvious that he got straight A’s in hypocrisy