Left vs. Right: presidental powers
Four and a half years ago, we would’ve never thought for a second that Osama bin Ladin’s head wouldn’t be sitting on a platter at the Smithsonian by now, absorbing the spit of American spectators. Unfortunately, those caves are deeper than we thought.
Since then, the government has adopted a we’ll-take-what-we-can-get attitude, one not without side-effects.
Now, all efforts are being thrown into giving Zacarias Moussaoui the death penalty. As much as he’d like to be, Moussaoui, the only person ever indicted for the crime of the millennium, was not exactly a primary player on 9/11, but who cares? Someone has to pay.
We forget, Islamic terrorists do not think as we do; he wants to die a martyr, and we should not let him. Forgetting him while he rots would be his worst imaginable punishment.
Last week, the Supreme Court refused the case of Jose Padilla, better known as the “Dirty Bomber.” Labeled an “enemy combatant” by the Bush Administration, he’s been imprisoned the past four years with no legal consultation, no charges being filed. What separated Padilla from others held indefinitely was that he is a U.S. citizen. The Court did issue a warning: They will be watching the president’s handling of such cases very closely.
And let’s not forget the spying, issued via the Patriot Act and the administration’s wiretapping citizens with no judicial oversight. The eavesdropping scandal, in particular, has led to recent discussion of possible censorship of Bush, and in some circles, impeachment.
War makes a man do crazy things.
Some say presidential powers cannot go far enough in protecting the American people; if ever there was a time to bend liberties and our procedural standards, this would be it. Maybe we should just turn Jefferson’s and Madison’s photographs toward the wall and do our dirty work.
What will this mean for America in the long run?
The truth is, these measures are not so much about national security as they are about the lust for absolute power-whether or not even Bush himself realizes it.
Americans wanted blood, damn the rules, and by condoning these persistent abuses of powers, we have since learned that 9/11 produced not one, but two, new enemies, the less obvious being ourselves.
A hundred years from now, when you and I are underground and long forgotten, schoolchildren will sit and study another history lesson. They will study some date long ago when more than 3,000 innocent people were murdered in New York City, forever shattering the invincibility of the world’s only superpower at the time. Their books may also mention the greatest document the world has ever known, something called the Constitution of the United States of America. If it’s not too late-and it may be–they will learn that it was upheld wisely and strictly respected. Even then.
There are higher stakes than even that of national security. If those in power, as well as those who aren’t would only consider this, that document will still be much more than a history lesson.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 14 2006. Filed under Opinion.
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