Candace

Talmadge

Read Candace's bio and previous columns

December 3, 2007

First, the U.S. Rounded Up the Arabs . . .

First, the U.S. government rounded up hundreds of Arab and Middle-Eastern men in this country and deported them without recourse or kept them in detention without access to attorneys or their families.

But that was OK, because this country had just been attacked and they looked suspicious.

Next the U.S. government proposed the “Patriot Act” – legislation that overturned fundamental constitutional principles of freedom (habeas corpus) and privacy (search warrants).

But that was OK, because the government needed these new powers to keep us safe.

Next the U.S. government invaded Afghanistan and, after rounding up large numbers of suspects, set up a prison at a place called Guantanamo to hold them indefinitely, without trial, access to counsel, or contact with their families.

But that was OK, because these were the worst of the worst terrorists, the government explained (offering no proof).

Next the U.S. government began torturing inmates at Guantanamo, using waterboarding and other interrogation methods that violate the Geneva Conventions and U.S. laws and repulse all those with even a rudimentary sense of decency.

But that was OK, because such methods help foil terrorist attacks, the government asserted (offering no proof).

Next the U.S. government arrested a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil and held him for years in solitary confinement, eventually driving him insane.

But that was OK, because he was part of some terrorist plot, even though the government’s eventual charges against him bore no connection to the initial justification for his arrest.

Next the U.S. government started spying on people inside U.S. borders, demanding that telephone companies hand over customer phone records without a search warrant.

But that was OK, because it helped unearth terrorist plots, the government insisted (offering no proof).

Next the U.S. government hyped slim to non-existent to outright fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

But that was OK, because Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a bad man.

Next the U.S. government invaded Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

But that was OK, because the United States was going to find those weapons of mass destruction.

Then one part of the U.S. government betrayed another part by exposing a covert CIA counter-terrorism operative.

But that was OK, because she wasn’t really covert (she was, according to the CIA), and her husband had dared to criticize the Bush Administration in public.

Next the U.S. government hastily enacted a federal law designed to intervene in a family dispute that had already been through seven years of state court oversight.

But that was OK, because it was all about preserving life at all costs.

Next the government diddled and fiddled and hemmed and hawed while thousands of its citizens were stranded without food or water for days after a flawed government-designed levee failed in a hurricane and flooded a major city as a result.

But that was OK, because the people were mostly poor, mostly black, and, above all, mostly Democratic.

Next the U.S. government took the unprecedented step of firing key federal prosecutors during the middle of a presidential term, and then lied to Congress about its reasons for doing so.

But that was OK, because federal prosecutors are supposed to be loyal to the president and the agenda of the president’s political party and Congress has no business asking questions.

Next, the U.S. government hyped questionable claims that Iranian agents were helping Iraqis kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

But that was OK, because Iran is part of the Axis of Evil.

Next, the U.S. government claimed that Iran is using its nuclear enrichment program to build weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that U.N. inspectors have found no evidence to justify such assertions.

But that was OK, because Iran is part of the Axis of Evil.

Soon, the U.S. government will invade Iran, preferably just before the 2008 presidential elections.

Then, as a result of the regional-threatening-to-be-global conflict the invasion touches off, the U.S. government will cite a national emergency, cancel the 2008 vote, and impose martial law.

Then the U.S. government will round up all those who ever publicly protested against, criticized, or even just questioned the Bush Administration and intern them in prisons that Halliburton will build somewhere in the remote desert, or maybe the rugged mountain Northwest.

Will that be OK, too?

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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