When Good Men Fail To Act

It's not that I actually have a complaint to write about, but I really do wonder if people can still tell the difference between illegal and unethical behavior and obeying the law, not only the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law as well. I say this because I believe we have let the spirit of the law slip dramatically in this country, believing that only getting to the bottom line matters. This goes for things like believing that the end justifies the means as well. Does it? Have we so abandoned our principles that we only consider what will get us what we want? Why are we so willing to discard the principles that made us so unique as a nation up until current events turned us into sheep with fangs?

We really are cowardly, you know; despite the brave window decals we place on our rear windows. Why is that? Well, in one significant area, we claim to support our troops and the mission the president says is vital to our nation in Iraq. Nonetheless we allow our soldiers to return for three or four consecutive tours of duty in a war zone and don't even blink an eye at their travails at having to do so. At the height of the Vietnam War we did not do that, nor did we require that in WW1 or WW2. Battle is a devastating experience, yet all we offer is yellow ribbons and waving flags. Where are the volunteers from the cheerleaders of this war? If you support the war, and you are not in uniform, then, I say you are a coward.

Have we forgotten the slogan that old men start wars yet young men fight them? Who are these old men who start wars anyway? Well in this case, the 17 members of the president's first administration who beat the drums of war all had deferments from the Vietnam War. How's that? The planners and propagandists for this war (Wolfowitz, Fife, Cheney, et. al.) somehow managed to claim they had other priorities while their fellow citizens died in Vietnam and came home either in a casket, or mentally and physically scarred for life. We allow that now? We excuse that? We actually think that these Chickenhawks are American heroes? They must be since the president handed out medals to them. There is something wrong here. Even the current president (a cheerleader during college and an avowed "C" student) is able to act the part of a war hero with impunity even though he left his National Guard post in 1972 and disappeared into the political thicket in Alabama. And no one is able to challenge that?

I wonder what would have happened if George Washington had given up at Valley Forge, and just slipped away leaving the fight to his second in commmand or other staff officers, saying, "I've got to go home to Martha and take care of my surveying business." Would he have lived that down? We have no trouble condemning Benedict Arnold for his one traitorous act, even though as one of our ablest generals (and a successful merchant-businessman) he turned the Revolutionary War around at Saratoga, and hacked his way through the Maine forests in the hopes of wresting Canada from British control too.

We give lip service to the actual bravery of our forefathers and at the same time excuse malfeasance in our current leaders. Here's a current example. It is my understanding that wiretapping is illegal unless the specific criminal is identified and the police get a court order. The president declares a national emergency, enlists the aid of the major phone companies, and conducts massive wiretapping in the name of the war on terror. We allow that because....because why?? Are we really quaking in our boots that somehow somebody will do us harm? No, we are just followers, sheep, sheeple as the bloggers say. We mindlessly follow the leader because he is the leader. Come again?? Now we offer immunity to the phone companies who participated because they were just following orders. What's that?? We hung Nazi officers after WW2 for claiming the same thing. We did not buy that excuse then and we should not buy that excuse now. Why? I'll tell you why.

As part of the officers code of conduct there is a part about not betraying one's principles, about being honorable, and defending the constitution. Taking the oath to uphold the constitution does not absolve a soldier or an officer, or even a member of government from leaving his or her principles at home once they take on the responsibilities of defending the country. Nazi soldiers and Japanese soldiers, and Italian soldiers could not claim that. It's a twinkie defense. We either hung them or imprisoned them - after a trial and major tribunals to repair the social fabric afte the Second World War. After a trial. After a tribunal. Get the irony? Now we do just the opposite and then claim a kangaroo court in Guantanamo will absolve us from our sins.

So, lawyers for the administration, namely John Yoo, Alberto Gonzalez, and others, claim we are not bound by the Geneva Convention if we re-name our adversaries "enemy combatants" and hold them off shore where we are not legally bound to obey our own laws against torture and humane treatment so we can extract vital information in midieval fashion from those we suspect of being in league with the enemy. How interesting. Europe abandoned torture over 400 years ago because it does not get people to tell the truth. Yet we, in our American wisdom, employ it now - in violation of all the principles we hold (excuse me, held) so dear, because we are told it will get us vital information that will save us from another 9/11 attack.

How convenient for those who wish to not be held accountable for their actions. First we claim a national emergency and the president must be granted extraordinary powers to save us. Extraordinary behavior for a nation that claims that The People are the government. We give a man who cannot even speak English coherently dictatorial powers in the name of saving our asses from a mushroom cloud that was proven not even to be on the planning table of a regional tinpot dictator. Then we excuse it because nothing has happened so it must be working. Are we aware that after taking power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolph Hitler declared a national emergency in order to run a weary nation no longer able to defend itself from an internal gang of brown shirt wearing thugs, who claimed Jews were out to destroy the country? We forget our history, and relive the circumstances in our ignorance.

And guess what? All those guns you guys have to protect yourselves from the enemy will eventually have to be used to protect yourselves from your own government - the government you gave away in the name of saving you from the trouble of defending it yourselves.