GOOSE-STEPPING TOWARDS DICTATORSHIP

Oh, crap.

Does Bush expect widespread violence in American streets? Does the administration really suppose that there is a greater threat of terrorists destroying multiple U.S. cities and threatening our institutions than there was formerly of a global power such as the U.S.S.R. doing so? Yet in those years we made significant progress towards human rights, we lived our lives and celebrated our accomplishments, we enjoyed our days without a constant shadow of doom eclipsing them. We recognized the threats and took action to allay them. We had confidence, though not blind faith, that our government could conduct foreign affairs competently, protecting us from any external enemies, and at the same preserve the freedoms and advance the well-being of our populace. We faced threats "like a man" (excuse the retro phrase) and refused to let any external or internal menace hinder our march towards progress as a nation. We held our Constitution sacred, our Declaration of Independence defined us -- and we believed that adherence to their principles was our source of national strength.

I've lived through the Cold War, was a small child during and still have vivid memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis (I lived in Florida within a triangle of three strategic military bases), came to adolescence through the late Vietnam era and witnessed in my young adulthood countless incidents of terrorism, the Iran hostage crisis, etc. None of these events altered our national character.

Now we are being told by the Bush administration that we are in an unprecedented state of danger, one so grievous that we must consider suspending our historical uniqueness in order to preserve our physical security. And all this was because of a single event, 9/11, a terrible day and a horrific attack, but nonetheless a single event, not perpetrated by a nation with a mind and the resources to invade and destroy the United States, but by a small band of terrorists whose mission was to make a statement about our Middle Eastern policies and a name for themselves.

How on earth have Americans come to such a pass that we are buying into such a manufactured environment of hysterical fear? Bin Laden must be laughing in his cups.

Am I a loony conspiracist? I don't think I'm loony, but I've thought for a long time that nothing is beyond the Bush-Cheney cabal.

President George W. Bush has signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment of U.S. troops on American streets. This would give him absolute dictatorial power over the government with no checks and balances.

It's not so far-fetched. After all, his brother did it in Florida. The neocons have not hidden their strategy of using whatever opportunities present themselves to advance their strategy of permanent global (and domestic) domination.

So where's the conspiracy theory?

It's not theory. It's fact.

9/11 "changed everything." You bet it did. But not in the way Americans take that to mean.

Tags: Bush, martial law, absolute powers, dictatorship