Posted on 11/14/2002 10:29:29 AM PST by 45Auto
What sets the United States of America apart from many foreign countries? It is our freedoms – protected from government abuse and our private sector capitalism. Now, our distinctions from other countries of the world are blurring. In many Third World countries government has unlimited power over the individual. You can be arrested and held without knowing anything. Government agents can search your home with impunity in the belief that you are dangerous or potentially dangerous.
With passage of the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Department by Congress we are in the beginning steps of reducing freedom in the name of security. When government performs its duties negligently, it rewards itself with more power and more resources with the inevitable end result that the citizenry is left less free and more powerless.
Former Attorney General Janet Reno's orders, claiming to safeguard children, resulted in the killing of many children in Waco, Texas. That was all lawful. Search warrants are no longer necessary in this new war on terror and secret courts do secret things and it is all legal.
Now our great country is having more in common with lesser developing countries, which have greater restrictions on freedom for the individual and invasions of privacy. At what point in the war on terrorism do we as a nation put limits on our ability to destroy our freedoms to safeguard us from terrorists, which our government has failed to do despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Coast Guard, U.S. Consular Service and other agencies?
Spending hundreds of billions of dollars by these agencies did not get the job done. The government's failure on 9/11 was the product of incompetence at the managerial level, negligence and lack of critical thinking by too many government personnel. Spending billions of more dollars and resources will not solve these problems. In fact, our highest level officials have said that nothing could have been done to prevent the horrendous attack on 9/11. Is that the mark of less than insightful leaders or a cover-up?
Our government is increasingly in a position to track every American citizen, gain access to all personal and financial information in the name of national security. At what point is freedom of the individual more important than government's right to intrude on the individual? The answer is becoming clear: There are likely no limits. We are at the mercy of unelected government officials not to abuse their authority. What is the government's accountability for abuse of authority? That is also becoming clear: Little or none. In the name of security all freedoms are secondary and subservient to the needs of the state.
But every time the state fails in its protective function another factor becomes clear: The government's rights are limitless. The citizens rights are limited. More and more authority and resources are needed by unelected and nameless civil servants to protect the American people.
Our nation has been convulsed in a war on terror since September 11, 2001. However, we as a nation had been on the receiving end of terrorists attacks since the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 with many subsequent attacks on American interests abroad. Did the government step up its vigilance against terrorism? The answer is no. For on September 11, 2001 there was only one Central Intelligence Officer dedicated to the al Qaeda threat, which was perceived to be minimal. Saudi travel agents had the authority to complete visa forms for Saudi Arabians, fifteen of whom were terrorists on 9/11.
With the advent of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center our government is diminishing freedoms in the name of security with the passage of the Patriot Act, which gives government unbridled power to track every American under the guise of preventing terrorism. What is wrong with this? It is wrong because when so much power is given it will be abused. The closer we are to unlimited power, the closer we are to unlimited abuse. There were sufficient laws to fight terrorism before 9/11. But the government apparatus failed the American people by taking the terrorists threats too lightly. Now, it is taking the threat beyond the necessary Constitutional limits with the aid of a rubber-stamping Congress.
Third World countries have their versions of the Patriot Act and the individual is always at the mercy and authority of government abuse. Crony capitalism flourishes. Only those who are well connected with government have opportunities in the private sector marketplace. The ease with which our government and its elected representatives have embarked on a course of limiting freedom in the name of security without first addressing what went wrong on 9/11 only reinforces the notion that we as a nation are lurching toward curtailing our great national Constitutional heritage in the guise of protecting it.
Are we a nation in the process of establishing permanently a national system of surveillance of the American people in the name of security? Is such a system of government our future? If so, what are the consequences to our freedoms? What are the unintended consequences of government intrusions on privacy and freedom?
Unelected officials will have more power than elected officials. There is nothing to worry about. The future is in the hands of anonymous officials. There is nothing to fear. All is well. The future is secure with greater government power. You are safer today than yesterday. You will be safe tomorrow. Any abuse of authority is a mistake and will be minor.
Accountability in word and deed may be retired into oblivion because it will become unnecessary and troublesome to those safeguarding our lives.
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Henry at uniskywriter@yahoo.com .
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