The War on Terror Is America's Mania

[mpohl 1]

The War on Terror Is America's Mania
A Commentary By Klaus Brinkbäumer

The NSA spying scandal shows that America's pursuit of terrorists has turned into a mania. Spying on citizens is as monstrous and unlawful as Guantanamo Bay and drone warfare.

America is sick. September 11 left it wounded and unsettled -- that's been obvious for nearly 12 years -- but we are only now finding out just how grave the illness really is. The actions of the NSA exposed more than just the telephone conversations and digital lives of many millions of people. The global spying scandal shows that the US has become manic, that it is behaving pathologically, invasively. Its actions are entirely out of proportion to the danger.

Since 2005, an average of 23 Americans per year have been killed through terrorism, mostly outside of the US. "More Americans die of falling televisions and other appliances than from terrorism," writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, and "15 times as many die by falling off ladders." The US has spent $8 trillion on the military and homeland security since 2001.

America has other threats. The true short-term danger is homegrown: More than 30,000 Americans are killed by firearms every year. An American child is 13 times more likely to be shot than a child in another industrialized country. When it comes to combating the problem, President Barack Obama and Congress are doing very little -- or, to be fair, nothing at all. They talk about it every now and then, after every killing spree. The gun lobby, incurably ill, counters that the weapons are necessary for self-defense.

And when it comes to real long-term dangers, such as climate change, America, its prime perpetrator, does nothing -- or, to be fair, too little too late.

As Monstrous as Guantanamo

All of this is not to say that terrorism doesn't exist: 9/11 happened, and al Qaida is real. But spying on citizens and embassies, on businesses and allies, violates international law. It is as monstrous and as unlawful as Guantanamo Bay, where for 11 and a half years, men have been detained and force-fed, often without evidence against them, many of whom are still there to this day. It is as unlawful as the drones that are killing people, launched with a mere signature from Obama.

There has been virtually no political discussion about all of this. Attacks have been prevented through the spying program -- Obama says it, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says it, and we have to believe them. Voters and citizens are akin to children, whose parents -- the government -- know what is best for them. But does the free America that should be defended even still exist, or has it abolished itself through its own defense?

An American government that gives its blessing to a program like Prism respects nothing and no one. It acts out its omnipotence, considers itself above international law -- certainly on its own territory and even on foreign ground. The fact that it's Obama behaving in such a way is bleak. If this were happening during the administration of George W. Bush, we could at least think, "It's just Bush. He's predictable. There is a better America." Now we know: There is only one America. Did Obama, the Harvard Law student, even believe what he was saying in his speeches about the return of civil liberties? Can someone be so cynical that they promise to heal the world, then act in such a way all the while giving the xenophobic explanation that only foreigners would be monitored? Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela are Obama's role models. What would they say?

[kallend 2,118]

I've been wondering for a while if ANY president can affect the entrenched bureacracies like the NSA, CIA, FBI, HSA etc. etc. I suspect the senior permanent mandarins that run these places are really the ones calling the shots, in the interests of maintaining and increasing their own power.

"Yes Minister" comes to mind.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[winsor 236]

Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. The are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury.

H. L. Mencken

[quade 4]

"We have always been at war with EastAsia."

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[mpohl 1]

I don't buy into conspiracies, etc.
But I think you are not too far off.

Organizations eventually become self-servant, and preoccupied with their on survival, at all costs.

kallend

I've been wondering for a while if ANY president can affect the entrenched bureacracies like the NSA, CIA, FBI, HSA etc. etc. I suspect the senior permanent mandarins that run these places are really the ones calling the shots, in the interests of maintaining and increasing their own power.

"Yes Minister" comes to mind.

[mpohl 1]

Have "we"? I haven't!

quade

"We have always been at war with EastAsia."

[Kennedy 0]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=we+have+always+been+at+war+with+eastasia

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[lawrocket 3]

kallend

I've been wondering for a while if ANY president can affect the entrenched bureacracies like the NSA, CIA, FBI, HSA etc. etc. I suspect the senior permanent mandarins that run these places are really the ones calling the shots, in the interests of maintaining and increasing their own power.

"Yes Minister" comes to mind.

Any President could. Problem is that President is not a job for someone who doesn't want more power. Each one comes in, there are all these agencies that provide him with power, and it grows and grows. Think the Cabinet is a group of altruists? Think again.

A President could be altruistic. But that would be giving away power.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[OHCHUTE 0]

Two words: Beltway Bandits.
And one last word: MONEY

[airdvr 210]

lawrocket

***
I've been wondering for a while if ANY president can affect the entrenched bureacracies like the NSA, CIA, FBI, HSA etc. etc. I suspect the senior permanent mandarins that run these places are really the ones calling the shots, in the interests of maintaining and increasing their own power.

"Yes Minister" comes to mind.

Any President could. Problem is that President is not a job for someone who doesn't want more power. Each one comes in, there are all these agencies that provide him with power, and it grows and grows. Think the Cabinet is a group of altruists? Think again.

A President could be altruistic. But that would be giving away power.

Think Jimmy Carter

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[mpohl 1]

He was/is a good man.

And if you have ever visited Plains, GA, you'd agree.

airdvr

Think Jimmy Carter

[JerryBaumchen 1,451]

Hi mpohl,

Quote

A Commentary By Klaus Brinkbäumer

Quote

Spying on citizens is as monstrous and unlawful . . . as drone warfare.

Think he has ever heard of Peenemunde?



JerryBaumchen

[JerryBaumchen 1,451]

Hi John,

Quote

"Yes Minister" comes to mind.

You are not the only one thinking this; and I spent 30 yrs working for the feds.

I think it was Henry Kissinger who was determined to change things at Foggy Bottom. I do not remember him having any success.

You can turn a rowboat fairly quickly, but turning the Titanic; now that takes some time.



JerrBaumchen

[mpohl 1]

What does Peenemuende have to do with drone warfare?
And yes, my father worked on the V2.

Go back to your cave, old man.

JerryBaumchen

Hi mpohl,

Quote

A Commentary By Klaus Brinkbäumer

***Spying on citizens is as monstrous and unlawful . . . as drone warfare.

Think he has ever heard of Peenemunde?



JerryBaumchen

[davjohns 1]

think terrorism is the boogeyman that justifies large budgets and prgrams that can be used for other than what they were sold as.

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.