Candace
Talmadge
Read Candace's bio and previous columns
December 3, 2007
First, the U.S.
Rounded Up the Arabs . . .
First, the U.S. government rounded up hundreds of Arab and
Middle-Eastern men in this country and deported them without recourse or
kept them in detention without access to attorneys or their families.
But that was OK, because this country had just been attacked and they
looked suspicious.
Next the U.S. government proposed the “Patriot Act” – legislation that
overturned fundamental constitutional principles of freedom (habeas
corpus) and privacy (search warrants).
But that was OK, because the government needed these new powers to keep
us safe.
Next the U.S. government invaded Afghanistan and, after rounding up
large numbers of suspects, set up a prison at a place called Guantanamo
to hold them indefinitely, without trial, access to counsel, or contact
with their families.
But that was OK, because these were the worst of the worst terrorists,
the government explained (offering no proof).
Next the U.S. government began torturing inmates at Guantanamo, using
waterboarding and other interrogation methods that violate the Geneva
Conventions and U.S. laws and repulse all those with even a rudimentary
sense of decency.
But that was OK, because such methods help foil terrorist attacks, the
government asserted (offering no proof).
Next the U.S. government arrested a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil and held
him for years in solitary confinement, eventually driving him insane.
But that was OK, because he was part of some terrorist plot, even though
the government’s eventual charges against him bore no connection to the
initial justification for his arrest.
Next the U.S. government started spying on people inside U.S. borders,
demanding that telephone companies hand over customer phone records
without a search warrant.
But that was OK, because it helped unearth terrorist plots, the
government insisted (offering no proof).
Next the U.S. government hyped slim to non-existent to outright
fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
But that was OK, because Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a bad man.
Next the U.S. government invaded Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do
with the 9/11 attacks.
But that was OK, because the United States was going to find those
weapons of mass destruction.
Then one part of the U.S. government betrayed another part by exposing a
covert CIA counter-terrorism operative.
But that was OK, because she wasn’t really covert (she was, according to
the CIA), and her husband had dared to criticize the Bush Administration
in public.
Next the U.S. government hastily enacted a federal law designed to
intervene in a family dispute that had already been through seven years
of state court oversight.
But that was OK, because it was all about preserving life at all costs.
Next the government diddled and fiddled and hemmed and hawed while
thousands of its citizens were stranded without food or water for days
after a flawed government-designed levee failed in a hurricane and
flooded a major city as a result.
But that was OK, because the people were mostly poor, mostly black, and,
above all, mostly Democratic.
Next the U.S. government took the unprecedented step of firing key
federal prosecutors during the middle of a presidential term, and then
lied to Congress about its reasons for doing so.
But that was OK, because federal prosecutors are supposed to be loyal to
the president and the agenda of the president’s political party and
Congress has no business asking questions.
Next, the U.S. government hyped questionable claims that Iranian agents
were helping Iraqis kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
But that was OK, because Iran is part of the Axis of Evil.
Next, the U.S. government claimed that Iran is using its nuclear
enrichment program to build weapons of mass destruction, despite the
fact that U.N. inspectors have found no evidence to justify such
assertions.
But that was OK, because Iran is part of the Axis of Evil.
Soon, the U.S. government will invade Iran, preferably just before the
2008 presidential elections.
Then, as a result of the regional-threatening-to-be-global conflict the
invasion touches off, the U.S. government will cite a national
emergency, cancel the 2008 vote, and impose martial law.
Then the U.S. government will round up all those who ever publicly
protested against, criticized, or even just questioned the Bush
Administration and intern them in prisons that Halliburton will build
somewhere in the remote desert, or maybe the rugged mountain Northwest.
Will that be OK, too?
© 2007
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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