So, it’s time for the next installment on what I believe.  As I’ve said before, I am not interested in being told what I think by someone who gets all their opinions fed to them and can only argue a point when I stick to the pre-determined script. 

Elsewhere I said I was going to talk about Civil Liberties in part 3.  Well, apparently I lied because I’ve decided to skip ahead and talk about the 600 pound gorilla in the living room:

Terrorism

Now, I am, and always have been, proud to be an American.  I love the principles we say we stand for.  I love that I’m free to stand up and disagree with my government without fear of reprisal.  I have no intention of leaving just because some yahoo in a pick-up truck has decided that I’m unpatriotic if I exercise my rights as a citizen.

I had just got home from an extended business trip in Stockholm the weekend before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  After just getting off a 777, it was easy to see myself on one of those 4 airplanes.  I watched, along with most of the country as innocent men and women died.  I cried for the first time when I saw New Yorkers walking out of Manhattan by the thousands toward safety – American refugees haven’t been seen in 140 years.

Using terrorist tactics to make a point is evil.  The planners of these crimes need to be hunted down, captured and made to answer for their actions.  There is no excuse for what they did.  That said, I hate that as a progressive, I feel the need to say all that – it’s what I believe and it pisses me off that someone would doubt that just because I disapprove of the US’ methods.

The approach we’ve taken to fighting terrorism as a country is wrong.

First, by making it a ‘War on Terror’ and predominately utilizing the military to conduct this war elevates these people by making them legitimate adversaries.  They are criminals and need to be treated as such.  This ‘war’ should involve the World’s spy networks and international police groups and not soldiers.

The whole world was behind us after 9/11.  Then we tossed that support away by killing innocent people, invading nations that had nothing to do with the attacks, acting like barbarians in our prisons and telling the world that if they don’t like it then they can just go to hell ‘cuz we’re the US and therefore always right.

Secondly, we declared it unpatriotic to wonder if any of our own actions led these men to think that their only possible response was to blow up innocent people.  Instead, we said that they hate us for our freedom.  That’s idiotic.  If that’s the case, why aren’t they attacking Canada or Sweden or Germany?  Those are nations just as free as the US.  Maybe, just maybe, the US has supported totalitarian regimes in the Middle East.  Maybe, just maybe, the US policy toward Palestine has been a little too one-sided in favor of Israel.

None of that excuses acts of terrorism, but maybe, just maybe, if we stop acting like arrogant Imperials and actually start supporting democratic movements around the world, we won’t have some many oppressed people hating us.

It’s a lot easier to say, “oh poor little us, why did they attack us?” instead of looking at some of the evil things done in our name over the past 60 years or so … but it’s not particularly useful.

Iraq

I went to my first anti-war protest in November 2002.  I thought then and I still think that the Bush Administration had already decided to invade Iraq and were just trying to find a casus belli (if you’re not familiar with that term, then look it up.) so that we can look like the good guys instead of the aggressor.  Iraq was never about WMD or terrorism or ‘spreading democracy’.  It is and always was about expanding the US control over the Middle East.

My brother is in Iraq as part or the Texas National Guard.  I hope that he comes home in one piece.  I hope no one else – American, Iraqi, British, whatever – has to die in this war.  I believe that the best way to support our troops is to pull them out of that nightmare. 

And by the way, those stupid ‘Support Our Troops’ ribbons on so many SUV bumper stickers are more about supporting the President’s policy than the people on the ground – what have you done to support the troops?

As a side conversation, isn't it convenient that the mid-term elections are next year, support for the war is at an all time low and now we're hearing rumors about bringing soldiers home before the elections?

Abu Graib, Gitmo and Torture

What the hell were they thinking?  We are supposed to be civilized people and members of a culture that is a shining example to others.  Why then are we acting like barbarians when it comes to the treatment of prisoners? 

There is no proof (remember about innocent until proven guilty?) that all these people humiliated and intimidated were actively fighting against the US.  It’s quite possible that many were but not all of them. In Iraq we routinely round up people, imprison them then release them without being accused of anything.  If we treat them like untermensch (look that word up too) then why are we surprised that they then become our enemies?

Even if Abu Graib was all a mis-understanding by a few low-level soldiers, then why does the Administration do nothing to make sure there isn’t even the appearance of prisoner mistreatment in these prisons? 

We are supposedly a civilized people.  Start acting like it.