Nothing patriotic in it
Excesses against civil liberties, as enshrined in Patriot Act, remind one of the need to cleanse the American political process of jingoism
A shortened pledge of allegiance to the US flag may soon be in vogue. The new version should delete the closing words "with liberty and justice for all."
The change is a logical response to bad decisions by President Barack Obama and alarming pledges by all Republican candidates for the presidency except Ron Paul, member of the House of Representatives. All but the Texas congressman endorse the misnamed Patriot Act. Truth in packaging requires it be renamed the Unpatriotic Act. It breeds domestic spying, injustice and fear-— not patriotism.
Enacted in the panic caused by the horror of 9/11, the bill has spawned thousands of violations of civil liberties prohibited by the US Constitution. Initiated by the George W. Bush administration and embraced by Obama, it authorises the president to trash constitutional protections of privacy, free speech and free assembly. It has led to cruel and unusual punishment and lengthy detention without due process of law. Under it, Obama orders extra-judicial executions and rendition.
The unpatriotic law produced a vast army of domestic snoopers. They fill office space equivalent to three buildings the size of the Pentagon and coordinate domestic spying through 10,000 local offices. Just one of the federal groups, NSA [National Security Agency], stores tapes of nearly two billion private messages every day. It invites candidate pandering to Israel that is shameless, transparent and dangerous.
Despite all this, leading Republican candidate Newt Gingrich wants the act made tougher, meaning further ravaging of civil liberties. No one seems to remember this Republican dictum: "Those who sacrifice civil liberty to gain security deserve neither." How soon we forget!
Ignoring the costly disaster in Iraq, a war initiated by the US government mainly at the behest of Israel, people like Gingrich and Mitt Romney commit themselves to another US-initiated war, this time against Iran. Romney promises, as president, to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons and warns he will immediately "prepare for war." Gingrich alluded warmly to explosions days earlier that killed Iran's senior official at a nuclear facility. The Georgia candidate said his presidency would expand this "taking out" [killing] of Iran's nuclear scientists.
The risk that Tehran would send a nuclear weapon against Israel is zero, because the Israeli response would poison, if not destroy, much of Iran. As everyone knows, Israel is well supplied with nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. If Iran builds nuclear bombs, it will be only for national prestige and deterrence. They have no other value.
At the presidential campaign level, only Republican Paul resists shameless pandering to Israel. All others seem oblivious to the fact that 9/11 was bloody payback for US complicity in Israel's 1982 massacre of 18,000 civilians in Lebanon and its illegal, decades-long humiliation of Palestinians and conquest of their land.
Anti-American passions will not recede until a wise and resolute president ends US complicity in Israeli crimes. America's political process is awash in jingoism. Who will end this nightmare?
Paul Findley is the author of six books, the latest is Speaking Out. He served 22 years as a Republican Representative in the US House of Representatives.
