In this Reuters article about the recent spying on Americans controversy, the administration attempts to defend the practice of spying on Americans (which they have previously denied and now have been caught doing secretly, so now they have to defend it). It is illegal for the government to spy on citizens without the approval of the court, but the administration is alleging that they are justified because we are “in a time of war”.
This just keeps coming up over and over again, and I’m surprised that anyone is still accepting it (although I think/hope fewer are). It should be plainly obvious to everyone by now that if you’re going to consider the “war on terror” as a qualification for the US being “in a war”, then you have to accept the fact that we will now be in a “war” forever. I heard several different radio commentators talk about this today, referencing all kinds of stuff that Lincoln did in his efforts as president during the civil war, but they’re totally missing the point that the so-called “war” we’re in now is completely and totally different from the actual wars of the past.
The other thing I’d really love to hear is the response of all the people who I’ve talked to about the Patriot Act who’ve said that it’s OK to do that kind of stuff to non-citizens (because for some reason they are not as deserving of civil rights as we are), but the government would never do that kind of thing to “us”.
One Comment
jefferson was right, they never should have created the bill of rights. freedom is implicite, but now people think you have to have a law to guarantee it.