Scary scary thinking...
I heard someone yesterday defend extreme measures (even illegal ones) in the war on terror. In the process, the person in question used the phrase "What good are civil liberties if an American city is nuked?"
By no means is it an easy choice to opt for the nuking of an American city, and I pray it never comes to pass.
But terrorists hit us because they want to destroy us. Does it REALLY make sense to people to do their job FOR them?
Look, I don't want an American city nuked. I certainly don't want one I live in, or in which my friends or family members live or work, nuked. But our choice isn't between giving up civil liberties or having a nuked city. It's between giving up civil liberties and having a possible, theoretically marginally higher chance of being nuked.
We could give up all of our civil liberties and STILL be nuked. On the other hand, we could stay within the laws and safeguards of our country and foil every plot against us. But if we give up the foundations of what this country is all about, what is there left to defend?
To those who would so lightly give up civil liberties on the premise that it even marginally increases our chance of stopping a terrorist threat, I hope you have a chance to live without any civil rights. Not for any length of time, but for a month or two. See what life is like when you can be picked up and jailed or tortured simply because you looked askance at someone in authority. I've never lived that way. I hope to heaven I never do, nor have to watch my children or any of my loved ones subjected to that kind of world.
But if you honestly think throwing away the rights and liberties that form the foundation of this country is a good idea, think that giving them up in order to be a little safer sounds just dandy to you, I wish for you just a taste of what such an America would really be like. Just enough to appreciate how great this country is and what, exactly, it is that our armed forces men and women fight and die protecting.
Liam.
posted by Liam at 2/13/2006 05:02:00 AM
2 Comments:
That's the problem, Liam. None of us, save for immigrants to this country or former POW's, have any real clue what that kind of life would be like.
People think that letting a few civil liberties go is okay if it means they are "safer." In fact, we become less safe the more liberties we relinquish to the government.
We can't stop every whackjob from causing harm no matter how restrictive we become, unless we want to live in a totalitarian state, where choices are made for us or to us, rather than by us.
As you say, no one wants to be attacked. But to give up the foundations of freedom this country professes to support and export is no different than cutting your own wrists before the psycho get to you.
Monday, February 13, 2006 2:37:00 PM
Exactly, Ken!
I just read both comments to my wife, and two quotes came to mind:
First, Patrick Henry had a glimpse of another possible world when he said "Give me Liberty or give me death". Clearly, at least to him, there were lives compared to which, death was preferable.
And as I was saying that, my dear wife pointed out that we live in a state whose motto is "Live Free or Die". Again, a wonderful sentiment.
It's not theoretical. Many thousands of people have died, starting in the Revolutionary war and going through our nations' history, because to them dying was preferable to living under the result if no one stood up to defend the liberties.
That's why it's so totally disgusting to me that anyone would so cavalierly throw away "a few liberties" in order to be safe. In order to have that mindset, they clearly must either not have thought it through, or have so benefitted from the freedoms in this country that they honestly can't conceive of how bad it would be to not have them.
Liam.
Monday, February 13, 2006 6:19:00 PM
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