Posted on 05/25/2005 7:43:18 AM PDT by Revenge of Sith
The current episode of "Star Wars" is dynamite for the duplicitous Bush administration. Palpatine, a Sith Lord masquerading as a galactic Republican, becomes Chancellor of the Galactic Republic through deception. Palpatine uses wars that he instigates to elevate security over the power of the Senate and to become dictator.
In a moment of triumph, Palpatine tells the Senate, "In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society." The senators respond with sustained cheering and applause. Padme says, "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."
Sith lords use the powers of the dark side of the force. Jedi knights use the power of the good side. The Jedi are selfless and use their incredible powers to protect the Republic. Sith are evil and crave absolute power. Palpatine, who is really Darth Sidious, manipulates the Senate and enlists the Jedi Council's patriotism to "defend" the Republic against a "separatist" army that he secretly directs. The purpose of the orchestrated war is to erode liberty in the name of security. The naive Jedi catch on too late and are decimated. The Republic falls.
Bush's "war against terrorism" is no less orchestrated than Palpatine's war and has led to the same result: a society dominated by security concerns.
The top secret British government memo that was leaked to the London Times proves beyond all doubt that Bush invaded Iraq for none of the changing reasons that he has given a too-trusting public. Bush did not invade Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction or because he wanted to bring democracy to Iraq.
Why did Bush invade Iraq? No one, least of all the Bush administration, has come up with a believable reason. Yet, there is no shortage of patriotic Republicans who sincerely believe that Bush has made America safer by turning the Muslim world against us and stirring up a hornets nest of terrorists united by their hatred of America.
Moreover, like Palpatine's war, Bush's war in Iraq appears to be interminable. U.S. military commanders say the United States will be fighting in Iraq for years to come. Forecasts are that the war will have cost taxpayers $600 billion by 2010.
Meanwhile, Bush, like Palpatine, has brought civil liberties to a crisis. In the United States, civil liberties are everywhere biting the dust. Not content with the Orwellian-named "Patriot Act," the Bush administration is pushing for expanded secret police powers. Even conservative Republican Bob Barr writes in the May 17 Washington Times that provisions of the "Patriot Act" go far beyond fighting terrorism "and undermine our constitutional freedoms and Fourth Amendment rights."
Barr is chairman of a coalition called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances. In other words, dear readers, the checks and balances are gone. Bush has enabled the police to bypass the courts. Executive power rules, and there are no Jedi knights.
The Sith, however, are everywhere. In our day, the Sith masquerade as neoconservatives. Neocons deal in absolutes. They believe the end justifies the means. As the Jedi master Obi-Wan tells Anakin, who is turning to the dark side and emerging as Darth Vader, "Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes." Anakin to Obi-Wan: "If you're not with me, you're my enemy."
Palpatine is able to manipulate the Galactic Senate with the clever use of words that play upon emotions. People want to feel secure. They want their side to prevail and will do whatever it takes to win, including trading their republic for an empire. Palpatine prevails because people deceive themselves.
Republicans have become adept at self-deception. They will believe any argument that justifies Bush and no news report that casts doubt on Bush's war. The leaked British government memo is dismissed as just more anti-Bush propaganda from the liberal press, like Dan Rather and Newsweek.
Newsweek's retraction of its story that U.S. soldiers flushed a Quran down a toilet proves to Republicans that the only problem is an anti-American liberal media. The fact that Newsweek was absolutely correct in reporting desecration of the Quran by U.S. troops -- and only got wrong the particular way in which the holy book was desecrated -- has been totally ignored by Republicans.
Republicans believe everything Bush says. When he tells them he needs a police state to save them from terrorists, they believe him.
Who will save us from Bush's police state?
Just as Child Protective Services has had to frame innocent parents and child-care providers as child abusers in order to justify its budgets and a massive bureaucracy, the vast Homeland Security apparatus will have to "find" terrorists. Otherwise, there is no point to all the expanded police powers and the huge budget.
Just as the indignities of airport security and its assorted searches fall on loyal American citizens, the police state measures will also fall on loyal American citizens.
With the courts bypassed, a terrorist is whoever the secret police say is a terrorist. The U.S. government is already committing the crime of kidnapping people mistakenly identified as terrorist suspects and flying them to brutal regimes to be tortured.
Police states have an insatiable need for enemies. In Stalin's time, the secret police conducted "street sweeps." People waiting for buses and shopping for food were carted off to prison, where they were tortured until they implicated others. Thus was the Gulag filled with innocents.
"It can't happen here," but the beginnings of it already have. The U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is full of mistaken identities and people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time -- including, according to The Associated Press, a chicken farmer and an invalid. Bush's brand of democracy -- a regime that holds people in prison for three years without charges -- does not have civil liberties at heart.
Republicans are cheering. According to news reports, Congress has passed -- and Bush is about to sign -- a law requiring a national identity card (Real ID) containing invasive digital information about the person.
How long will it be before the card specifies whether the person is a gun owner? If it is dangerous for air travel to permit a passenger to have a toothpick or nail clippers, how can a terrorist-threatened society permit mass gun ownership?
If the constitutional protections of civil liberties can be suspended in order to better fight terrorism, the Second Amendment doesn't have a chance. A government that spies on its citizens will not trust them with guns. When gun control becomes an essential feature of Homeland Security, the National Rifle Association and talk radio conservatives will be as astounded as Bail Organa and Padme when they hear Palpatine declare "an empire ... and a sovereign ruler chosen for life."
The war on terror is real.
The movie Star Wars is fiction.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Do these idiots completely disregard the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the first WTC bombing and innumerable other terrorist acts all took place prior to W. It is kind of sick that they really believe that all was right in the world before five years ago.
Long live the Sith.
Palpatine has way more brains & charisma than Byrd.
No, but I have.
The U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is full of mistaken identities and people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time -- including, according to The Associated Press, a chicken farmer and an invalid.
Chicken farmers can't be terrorists? I must have missed the memo.
Invalids can't be terrorists? The leader of the group that blew up the World Trade Center the first time is a blind man.
Well one solution is to... "dissolve the council, put power in the hands of the regional governors, and let fear keep the local systems in line."
And yes it is just a movie.
Tell that to Jon Alvarez, who actually spearheaded a boycott of this film based on what you have just read.
It's a shame we have people on our side who cannot tell the difference between fantasy/fiction and reality.
Agreed.
Yeah, the jedi got what they deserved. Except the, ahem, younglings. You gotta be one evil fiend to go around slaugherting younglings.
It's not that tough to figure out, Paulie. Iraq was the easiest to defeat and gives us a foothold for the real targets, Syria and Iran.
That the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan (50 MILLION PEOPLE WHO WERE SLAVES ARE NOW FREE!!) has already yielded gains for freedom in the region (small steps but real nonetheless) is icing on the cake.
We now have Afghanistan and Iraq from which to work, and popular democratic movements in many middle eastern countries. From a strategic standpoint we're way way ahead of where we were.
If the likes of Paul Craig Roberts refuse to acknowledge this, that's their problem. Anyone with eyes and a brain can see what's happening.
Considering that all the member entities have the own form of government this is a more accurate comparison. Naboo for instance is an elective monarchy a la the polish system (but with term limits?), and we can only assume Alderaan is also a monarchy, or at least an aristocratic oligarchy, since Leia could not have inherited the title princess from her biological mother.
I think he looks like Elaine's kooky boss on Sienfeld, Mr. Pitt
.....But....but......George Lucas is one of the foremost Political thinkers in the world today, didn'tchaknow,
This guy's a lunatic who actually believes what he reads in the left-wing press. The crowd who thinks we were better off with Saddam, the Tali-ban, a bold Qaddafi, and daily bombings in Israel deserve to live for a while under a true reign of terror. People like Roberts have a right to commit suicide, but not to drag us off the cliff with them.
Lazz you are crazy! LOL
stupid attempt at relating a fantasy to current events ping
Hehe. Bush to the terrorists: "WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' IN MY SWAMP??"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.