The War Is Over

The headlines of Friday's (09/29/06)newspapers should have been a bold three-inch proclamation:

THE WAR IS OVER!

The subtitle should have read:

The Terrorists Won

because the day before, our senators passed a bill that surrendered our freedoms in exchange for "security". There were no cries of "Give me liberty or give me death!" There was no drama at all. The surrender was shameful and demoralizing as it has been for any surrendering nation. Our Congress relinquished our national freedoms and ethics in exchange for....in exchange for what? The Republicans would have you believe that we lost our right to due process of law because it was necessary for security. They would have you believe that torturing another human being is not a cowardly, sadistic act, but somehow sanctioned for THIS nation, the nation that used to be the champion of human rights and anti-torture. They would have you believe that for us, torturing is somehow permissable, justified. George W. Bush signed the bill into law on Friday that gives him the power to interpret the Geneva Conventions. The globally-honored rules that draw the line between acceptable interrogation techniques and torture is now to be intrepeted by the man who, as a child, stuffed firecrackers into live frogs, lit the firecrackers, and laughed as the helpless creatures were blown apart. This is the same man who thought it was more important to deliver a speech in San Diego and, later, attend John McCain's birthday party than it was for him to rush to the scene of the worst natural disaster in this nation. He literally ate cake as people drowned in New Orleans. A man who has shown no regard for human life is now to decide what interrogation techniques can be used, whether or not they are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. This law also gives Bush the power to detain without due process of law, ANYONE whom he considers to be a threat. ANYONE. American citizens are not exempt from his determination. He doesn't have to worry about his reasons or justifications. It will all be "secret", classified information to, ah, keep us safe. So, how safe do you feel now, America, now that you've surrendered everything. Just when did we become a nation of such sniveling cowards? The terrorists must be thrilled. One dramatic series of events on September 11th, and Americans gladly gave up everything that made them Americans. I've heard people say that to pull out of Iraq would mean that those American troops who died there would have died in vain. Now I can only think that those who died in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II to create and preserve our precious freedoms, have now died in vain.