Bryan W. Alaspa 1Imagine a place…
September 26th 2009 18:59
Where the government can listen in to your phone conversations whenever it wants to. No, there is no need to get a warrant or anything, they can just listen in. Imagine being told that, well, as long as you aren’t doing anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about. Kind of sounds like a place run by a dictator, right?
Imagine a place where the government uses a great national tragedy as propaganda to invade another country. They use dubious intelligence and false accusations to make it seem like that country had something to with that great national tragedy. However, it soon becomes apparent that the entire invasion was a lie, stitched together from faulty intelligence presented as gospel truth, and jingoistic nonsense about that terrible, terrible national tragedy. Kind of sounds like something a country run by a totalitarian government might do, right?
Imagine a government that calls anyone who is against that invasion and war as “unpatriotic.” Imagine that government going so far as to blow the cover of an agent for the government who was actively involved in foreign countries, trying to make that country safer, because that agent’s husband made statement against that war. Imagine a country that slanders and impugns those who see this invasion as wrong and tells them that expressing those concerns goes against the government. Sounds like a country without the real right to free speech. Surely a government run by a dictator, right?
Imagine government that makes it a policy to take people into custody for the slimmest of reasons and then hold them there without telling them why they have been taken into custody. Imagine not having the right of being told why you are in prison while you sit there, in prison, away from your family, wondering how long it will be before you are let out. Kind of sounds like something terrorists would do, right?
Imagine a country that advocates taking prisoners to other countries where torture is not only allowed, but actively encouraged. You give such a thing a name that makes it sound less horrifying like “rendition” but it amounts to the same thing. In these countries they brutally torture these people by hanging them from the ceiling with their hands behind their back or by maiming and mutilating their feet and their limbs. Sounds terrifying, like something out of a book about World War II told from the side of the Germans, right?
Imagine a country that does advocate the practice of taking a prisoner, strapping them to a board, placing a rag over their face and then pouring water over their face. This causes them to inhale water, at times enough that their stomach becomes distended from inhaling so much liquid, and giving the feeling of drowning. This country does not consider this torture, however, so it is acceptable to do this. Even though the experience is so terrifying and horrible that many who have experienced it say they would say or confess to anything, true or not, to make it stop, this country keeps doing it as an acceptable way of trying to get information out of prisoners. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge used these techniques right? This must be a backwards, poor, violent, evil country, right?
Now imagine that invasion of that country for false reasons has gone on and on and was so ineptly handled that the soldiers went in without the proper ammunition, armor or equipment. Imagine sending those troops into this desert country without enough water. Imagine this country being so incompetent and so convinced of its own righteousness that it has no plan for staying long or pulling out. Imagine that this incompetence has lead to the deaths of more of its people than that horrible national tragedy which was supposed to be the reason behind the invasion in the first place. Such a country would be laughable, right? An embarrassment?
Now imagine that country finally getting rid of the morons in charge who did these horrible, embarrassing, potentially illegal things and putting someone else in charge. That someone else wants to enact programs that will take care of the citizens of that country. That someone wants to enact rules of engagement with other countries that involve trying to find peaceful solutions first instead of bombing first. That someone wants to clean up the environment, improve the image of this country that has been so soiled and sullied for eight years.
And now, imagine that this person who wants to do this good, is mocked and told HIS programs are somehow worse than the totalitarian, illegal, tyrannical, imperialistic, bullying techniques that his predecessor stood behind so firmly. Imagine those people saying that his attempts to help those who cannot get car are somehow worse than any of that I mentioned earlier.
Such a country could not possibly exist, right? Surely that country would realize its mistakes of the previous years and be doing everything it can to make up for it. Surely.
Sadly, the answer is no.
Welcome to the United States of America, 2009.
Imagine a place where the government uses a great national tragedy as propaganda to invade another country. They use dubious intelligence and false accusations to make it seem like that country had something to with that great national tragedy. However, it soon becomes apparent that the entire invasion was a lie, stitched together from faulty intelligence presented as gospel truth, and jingoistic nonsense about that terrible, terrible national tragedy. Kind of sounds like something a country run by a totalitarian government might do, right?
Imagine a government that calls anyone who is against that invasion and war as “unpatriotic.” Imagine that government going so far as to blow the cover of an agent for the government who was actively involved in foreign countries, trying to make that country safer, because that agent’s husband made statement against that war. Imagine a country that slanders and impugns those who see this invasion as wrong and tells them that expressing those concerns goes against the government. Sounds like a country without the real right to free speech. Surely a government run by a dictator, right?
Imagine government that makes it a policy to take people into custody for the slimmest of reasons and then hold them there without telling them why they have been taken into custody. Imagine not having the right of being told why you are in prison while you sit there, in prison, away from your family, wondering how long it will be before you are let out. Kind of sounds like something terrorists would do, right?
Imagine a country that advocates taking prisoners to other countries where torture is not only allowed, but actively encouraged. You give such a thing a name that makes it sound less horrifying like “rendition” but it amounts to the same thing. In these countries they brutally torture these people by hanging them from the ceiling with their hands behind their back or by maiming and mutilating their feet and their limbs. Sounds terrifying, like something out of a book about World War II told from the side of the Germans, right?
Imagine a country that does advocate the practice of taking a prisoner, strapping them to a board, placing a rag over their face and then pouring water over their face. This causes them to inhale water, at times enough that their stomach becomes distended from inhaling so much liquid, and giving the feeling of drowning. This country does not consider this torture, however, so it is acceptable to do this. Even though the experience is so terrifying and horrible that many who have experienced it say they would say or confess to anything, true or not, to make it stop, this country keeps doing it as an acceptable way of trying to get information out of prisoners. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge used these techniques right? This must be a backwards, poor, violent, evil country, right?
Now imagine that invasion of that country for false reasons has gone on and on and was so ineptly handled that the soldiers went in without the proper ammunition, armor or equipment. Imagine sending those troops into this desert country without enough water. Imagine this country being so incompetent and so convinced of its own righteousness that it has no plan for staying long or pulling out. Imagine that this incompetence has lead to the deaths of more of its people than that horrible national tragedy which was supposed to be the reason behind the invasion in the first place. Such a country would be laughable, right? An embarrassment?
Now imagine that country finally getting rid of the morons in charge who did these horrible, embarrassing, potentially illegal things and putting someone else in charge. That someone else wants to enact programs that will take care of the citizens of that country. That someone wants to enact rules of engagement with other countries that involve trying to find peaceful solutions first instead of bombing first. That someone wants to clean up the environment, improve the image of this country that has been so soiled and sullied for eight years.
And now, imagine that this person who wants to do this good, is mocked and told HIS programs are somehow worse than the totalitarian, illegal, tyrannical, imperialistic, bullying techniques that his predecessor stood behind so firmly. Imagine those people saying that his attempts to help those who cannot get car are somehow worse than any of that I mentioned earlier.
Such a country could not possibly exist, right? Surely that country would realize its mistakes of the previous years and be doing everything it can to make up for it. Surely.
Sadly, the answer is no.
Welcome to the United States of America, 2009.
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