The Frog Prince, Revisited
_______________
[I wrote the following on Bush and Declaration of
Independence violations two years ago (7/3/06).
It is good to re-visit:]
Independence violations two years ago (7/3/06).
It is good to re-visit:]
Ranger is 60 years old, and the events of the last few years have led me to be curiouser and curiouser about the Declaration of Independence (DI), the statement of our country's raison d'etre. Since this is a bedrock document--predating the U.S. Constitution--it reflects the spirit and intent of the original fathers. And since we give a lot of lip service to democracy these days, I thought it best to go to the source for some insight and refreshment on our country's mission statement.
Before officials and military personnel swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution, it'd be wise to require them to actually read these quaint foundation documents. I often wonder how many Americans have actually read them, much less understood their political and philosophical implications.
In the first paragraph of the Declaration, Jefferson refers to "Nature's God", indicating his Deism. The Founders were not fire-and-brimstone televangelists shilling for some right wing Republican party organization. Deism is not the same as Christianity.
Some further clarification of terms is necessary. The DI refers to the "King of Great Britain," King George III. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll refer to George W. Bush as George III, instead. (The Royal King George III is actually George #1, George Herbert Walker Bush is George #2, leaving GWB, George the 3rd in this dynasty of Georges.)
One breaking point with England was over obstructing British laws which prevented naturalization of foreigners and refused to encourage emigration. Sound familiar? Are we as a nation encouraging "migration hither"? Ask the 11 million illegals presently in the country.
Further: "He has made judges dependent on his will alone." Do Harriet Myers ("She's my friend"), or Alito or Roberts, or for that matter, Gonzales, come to mind?
"He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people." Sound suspiciously like Homeland Security and a normal day at the airport, gratis the Patriot Act? Doesn't NSA eavesdropping on US citizens without warrants qualify as harassment?
"He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power." Does authorizing the military organization called the National Security Administration (NSA) to spy on us sound like something the DI was opposed to? In effect, the U.S. military is now a warrantless, long-term domestic spy agency, in blatant defiance of the concept of jurisdiction and civilian control of law enforcement. The U.S. military was not formed to spy on U.S. citizens.
Yet January 6, 2006, George III via executive order moved to suspend Posse Comitatus, which would institutionalize further militarization of law enforcement. (See my 3/8/06 post, Posse Comitatus Violation in NSA Eavesdropping.) This was done, of all reasons, to protect us from bird flu. So we're being militarized over some sick chickens. Chicken protection from chickenhawks.
"For protecting large bodies of armed troops and protecting them by mock trial from punishment." Sounds like the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Camps Alpha and X-ray, and armed enemy combatants, the latter of which do not even get the courtesy of a mock trial. The mock trials are the prosecution of junior enlisted soldiers.
Meanwhile, those in the chain of command have carte blanche. Incidentally, the Geneva Convention forbids putting POW's in prisons and penitentiaries--a point which has escaped an administration which believes it supersedes international law. And while we're at it, we've done a good job of poking the Geneva Convention full of holes, too, making it just as leaky as George III's rationale for implementing his pre-emptive war.
But here is the best way in which the Georges--I and III--mirror each other: for "Depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury." Does Jose Padillo and armed enemy combatants ring a bell?
If terrorists and "suspected" terrorists violate Federal Code, then try them by jury. There is no other way in the U.S. system, a democracy last I checked, unless they are deemed prisoners of war. Either way, the rule of law should prevail, and in the USA, a trial by jury is the singular standard test for guilt.
"He has burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people." Does this sound like an unjustified invasion of countries? While Iraq may not be "our people" (despite George's colonial behavior to the contrary), it is nonetheless a thorough rending of their social fabric.
It is perfectly acceptable to George III to destroy Iraqi towns so that we can have photo ops with purple thumbs. But destroying countries to make them democracies is not exactly Jeffersonian democratic thought in action. And sacrificing our servicemen and women on the funeral pyre of George's misbegotten crusade certainly qualifies as the "destruction of our people."
"He is transporting large armies to complete the works of death, destruction and tyranny with circumstances of cruelty scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." Ditto Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, et al.
"He has constrained...(citizens) to bear arms against their nation, to become executioners of their friends." Does the new US-formed Iraqi army reflect democratic ideals? Surely Shiites armed and trained with US finances are killing and torturing their brethren Sunnis in this civil war-like conflict.
"He has excited domestic insurrections." Again, creating an army in Iraq that has a sole purpose of suppressing its own citizens seems to qualify as "exciting insurrections." What would you do if, say, a rabid band of Georgians or Idahoans wielding weapons came knocking on your door some night? Invite them in for a pow-wow?
"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be a ruler of a free people." Our own George III has usurpt the congressional prerogative of declaring war. This act is illustrative of the Machiavellian corruption of character our President displays at each turn.
he President cannot declare war under our laws. He can request a declaration of war by Congress, but as Commander-in-Chief, he cannot put the nation in a state of war. A President cannot constitutionally preempt the authority and purview of Congress. And Congress, in turn, has inverted democratic principles by accepting this travesty. The president is not a prince!
"And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." (Note: large D in Declaration, small d in divine, done by Jefferson in the original.) The new conservative religious takeover in this country has reversed this.
A modern summation of this closing would probably condemn influence peddling to increase personal fortunes, and surely our sacred honor should not rest upon the profits (prophets) of companies contributing to the political longevity of any individual party. We should not be in the business of dynasty-making. Leave that to the cast of "Dallas" and other third-rate soaps.
Where is Jefferson's "sacred honor" now? I am feeling like a very bereft Diogenes today.
Labels: consequences of wot, criminals in the white house, george III, how bush violates the declaration of independence, phony war on terror, PWOT
posted by rangeragainstwar at 9:35 AM
14 Comments:
I started reading this document but then realized that it surely must be some terrorist document put together by people who hate America and our way of life. For example, there was all the whining about the things that our brave leader George is doing to protect us, there was the notion that the people had rights that were granted to them by their Creator rather than by their government, and then there was the clear threat to overthrow our God-ordained government and replace it with… what? Obviously some sort of jihadi law, I’m sure.
But given that our brave STASI agents now have clearance to spy on people like these, I’m sure we’ll get no trouble out of them. Gotta go, the national anthem is playing….
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.
Indeed!
– Badtux the Alternate History Penguin
(But is it an Alternate History if it's real, just 242 years late?)
Excellent post, Ranger.
The holiday we celebrate today is by far the most important of the myriad holidays we have, something I fear many Americans have lost sight of. On this day, we not only celebrate our independence—something most people in the world have never enjoyed—but we also honor those brave people who did it for us. Modern Americans rarely reflect on "old guys from the past," but one thing I always do on this day is take some time to think of some long-dead fellows to whom I owe my very existence.
We hear a lot these days about the Constitution and the rule of law. With good reason, of course, because it's become clear that we've allowed a lot of people to occupy positions of trust who just aren't worthy of our trust.
But, revolutionary and patriot that I am, I always like to focus on the Declaration. Absent the Declaration, there would be no Constitution. Absent the Declaration, we might have ended up being like Canada or Australia. And a lot of people would say that's not all bad. "Look," they will say, "they have freedoms, but without the problems we have." But what those folks don't seem to realize is that, absent the Declaration and our revolution, our friends in the British Commonwealth can never be sure that THEIR history would have unfolded in the benign way it did.
The Declaration of Independence is the most powerful document in the history of mankind. July 4, 1776 is important to every living human being. This was when some brave Americans declared that freedom and self-governance were the right of every human, a message that rulers around the world did not wish to hear. The actions of our Founders have inspired countless numbers of people around the world. Literate people in every country know our story.
And here we are in the year 2008, 232 years after the Declaration, a pathetic shell of the nation we once were. It's not so much that much of the citizenry disappoints—after all, close to half of the populace at the time of the revolution saw no problems with being English subjects—it's the leadership that disappoints so much. There is no Washington, Adams or Jefferson anywhere in view. Every so-called leader is merely a variant on business-as-usual, never questioning the flawed premises that led us to our current state.
What's happened to our nation is that we've become England in 1776. We're Tories. We accept the King's rule, we accept taking the scraps from the nobility's table, we accept daily outrages from agents of the state, and we cheer for the crown when it decides to initiate a war in a far-off place against the "heathens" we so fear and despise. We are sheep. We are stupid. We've lost our revolutionary spirit and have become just another nation, a nation that doesn't hesitate to squander its youth and treasure on foreign adventures.
We've become everything the Founders fought against. That might be OK had they lost. But they won. But I guess all of this now is their fault; they obviously set the bar too high.
At least we know that Khalid Shaykh Mohammed was born after the Kennedy Assassination, so that couldn't have been him shooting from the grassy knoll.
Also, knowing what we now know about time travel, is it possible that Khalid could have been Jack the Ripper?
He has burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.
when i read this one lately, i think of new orleans, now iowa and missouri, and my own home of california, now on fire because the war in iraq and afghanistan has sucked dry all government resources. for the last two weeks in the north of the state (and we will most likely burn in the fall down here in the south) has had over 1,000 fires burning. no containment, no control, no hope of getting either.
the big sur fire is going so hard and strong that the only real hope of any containment is that the fire grows to the point of creating a weather system.
Americans are too afraid to seek Liberty. We must have safety above all, even as we continue to wage wars that only make everyone less safe.
Well said.
MB, i'll use a catholic religion concept as a reply to your cmt. there are sins of commission and omission- gwb is guilty of both.
Ark.,
I've seen Zapruder's grassy knoll shots, and there were no camels parked in the foreground. KSM gets a pass on that one. But I'd waterboard him just to make sure.
Publius,
"We are sheep. We are stupid. We've lost our revolutionary spirit and have become just another nation, a nation that doesn't hesitate to squander its youth and treasure on foreign adventures" --
In a nutshell.
Thank you for your meditations on this most powerful document of political philosophy.
rez dog,
We're not doing so well on either the liberty or the safety front.
re: torturing confessions.
given a long enough session and the proper exotic tools you can get anyone to confess to anything. that we are allowing people who have been tortured to go on trial for their lives is a depravity i can barely comprehend.
it makes me wonder if there is indeed a road back for us.
"it makes me wonder if there is indeed a road back for us."
Maybe not, MB. Cat lover that I am, I've always liked that old cats and nine lives thing. But, then cats are pretty decent creatures. But American humans, who've been blessed with all of the best, and who've, over the course of more than 200 years, actively worked on pissing it all away? I figure we Americans may have already used up the previous eight lives, given how lucky we've been.
At some point, Darwin and evolutionary theory have to come into play. It's starting to look as if we don't have what it takes to survive as a nation. We're literally not smart enough. Leave aside the stupid wars, just think about something like the current $4+ per gallon we're paying for gas; then think about the politicians we elected over the past 30 years who did nothing to address what anyone with a brain knew would be a world-shattering problem at some point. That point is now here, and we still do nothing.
And I'll tell you something else. I've lost my tolerance for my fellow citizens, those who vote for people who tell them all about the terrists and how those evil lefties focus more on our domestic problems then on killing people overseas. Fuck my fellow citizens. I'm pulling up the ladder; they can fend for themselves. I'm fortunately still in decent physical condition and I know how to take care of myself and my own.
We've come a long way from the Declaration. We're actually not too far from anarchy.
Publius, you've made no cmt. on fm17-76.
As trained soldiers we both know that we are useless unless supported by other elements.although i share your views i realize that any crummy federal swat team could clean my clock and then take sexual liberties with my cat.usually their dicks are about the right size for such endeavors. jim
Keeping score, eh, Ranger? Actually, you gave me two choices of places to put some thoughts about July 4 and our American experience, which is now mostly in the dumper, I might add. I chose this post because, frankly, I worry more about the nation than I do about the Army and their stupid publications.
For the record, and I think I've said this before, the COIN FM is underwhelming—one wonders why Petraeus is considered such hot shit, if that's the best he's got going for him—and it's also an attempt to codify what's been in practice a very questionable activity.
I've got another thought, which I'll put up there under FM 17-76. Happy now?
Publius. no i'm not keeping score- i can't count with my boots on.
we both feel the same about 3-24-it's an embarrassment but then again so is our entire involvement in the PWOT.i solicite your cmts b/c i value them . jim
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