"Unless this is vetoed, we have just lost the war."
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Dramatic as your statement is, I am afraid you are exactly right.
The bill has "white flag" written all over it.
This Senate just sold out the war.
Just what are the restrictions placed in the bill?
I doubt it is THAT bad (but then again, maybe it is).
I was thinking about this overnight. From the perspective of the military - isn't there a good side to this? If I were a soldeir, I think I would want to a clear uniform policy on what we can do - one that can't be over-ridden by someone who shows up and gives me orders.
I must respectfully disagree.
As a Constitutionalist, I believe that our Rights are an inherent part of our humanity. They are not bequeathed to us by the Constitution, nor are they subject to the whims of any government. A tyrannical government can prevent its citizens from exercising their rights, but the citizens STILL have them. It is the belief in inalienable rights of all people, endowed by their Creator, that gives us the license to free oppressed people, or for opppressed people to rise up against their oppressors.
In short, just because these detainess are not Americans (meaning, they should not receive the same PRIVILEGES as other Americans), we should, as a people, respect their RIGHTS, which were not granted by us, but by GOD.
Detaining people indefinitely without charging them with a specific crime is a subversion of their rights. Personally, I would love to see terrorists and their supporters simply shot and left for dead on the streets of whatever cr*phole they were found skulking around in, but once we take these folks into custody, we should only have a set period of time to hold them before they have to be charged or released.
Remember Project Megiddio? This notorious bit of "theorizing" was put together under the Clinton Administration, through the FBI, and pointed the finger at Conservative Christians as the greatest threat to American national security. It was released in 1999 and shortly thereafter disappeared due to the wild uproar it caused.
The reality is that Bush will only be in the White House until 2008. Should the tables turn, and the Republicans lose the White House, we could have a radically different CIC. I don't want the powers being granted to this administration (which I feel is using them fairly, all things considered) to be ABUSED, as is so often the case (see The Rapist or his co-conspirator wife, Old Crusty) under a different administration.
Don't get me wrong, here. As a former NYer, I have many friends who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center. Every 9-11, I sit and watch "9-11" to remind myself of that day, and I still weep buckets. I have been a strong supporter of our efforts in Iraq and have written articles ripping the Dems apart for their continued lies about the war.
But IMHO, in this instance, these folks were correct.