Patriots Day

Today, September 11, is Patriot day. A day where we mourn for the loss of 3000 Americans in a horrific attack on US soil. We were all shocked and horrified at these heinous crimes and rightly seek justice.

It is also day where we see the tragic consequences of a nation who pays little heed to September 17, Constitution Day.

9/11 plus 7 years

Reformer.com

Thursday, September 11

Ever since the terror attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration has maintained that the civil liberties guaranteed by our Constitution are luxuries we can no longer afford and that we must learn to live without.

The words of Benjamin Franklin from more than two centuries ago apply here: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

The civil liberties that our forefathers fought and died to obtain and preserve did not make us vulnerable to terrorism on 9/11. The suspension of these civil liberties do not protect us from foreign terrorists. Instead, it makes us more vulnerable to abuses by our own government.

Seven years after 9/11, it seems perfectly normal that our public spaces are now filled with security personnel. It seems perfectly normal to be searched and frisked and poked and prodded to get on an airplane. It seems perfectly normal that access to previously public information is curtailed and hidden from view. It seems perfectly normal to conduct warrantless searches and wiretaps, to torture detainees, to imprison people indefinitely without charge.

Professionals in the field call this "anti-terrorism theater," actions that look impressive but do nothing to deter actual terrorism.

But these acts do have a larger purpose -- to sow fear and confusion among the citizenry that can be exploited by the unscrupulous for political gain. Keep the public afraid of the evil that lurks beyond our borders, and you can manipulate that fear to keep yourself in power while portraying anyone who questions you as disloyal and un-American.

This, in a nutshell, has been the last seven years in America.

All the empty promises of the so-called global war on terror are still unfulfilled. Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of 9/11, still taunts us. Al-Qaida has cells all over the world. The invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban was left undone to instead invade a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 -- Iraq.

Now, U.S. forces are enmeshed in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Because of the U.S. war of choice in Iraq, the Taliban was able to regroup and reassert itself in Afghanistan. Instead of one war, we have two conflicts that might never be truly won.
Our nation's standing in the world has diminished with every day since 9/11. The one brief moment when we had virtually the whole world in our corner, immediately after the attacks, was squandered to pursue a dream of total global dominance by the United States. It will take generations to rebuild the lost credibility of the United States, particularly in the Arab world.

But the Bush administration and its supporters are steadfast in their belief that our nation did the right thing. But we have neither liberty or safety anymore.
The list of abuses of power by the administration are long, and nothing, not even 9/11, justifies them.

Will our nation ever return to the way it was before that terrible day? It depends on how soon we wake up and see that we have been manipulated by our leaders for nothing more than political gain.

That is why, on this day, we not only mourn those who died in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, we also mourn our lost freedoms and resolve to reclaim our democracy from the grasping hands of those who want to take it away.