Cybrpnk's Rantings

For anyone who doesn't know what has been going on in my life and is wondering why I haven't been writing lately, drop me an email. It just isn't something I want to post about.

Now, back to our long-overdue ranting, previously scheduled....

For anyone who was still under the impression that our so-called president and our Orwellian 'Department of Homeland Security' were really doing the job we all think they are supposed to be doing, I offer the sad spectacle of New Orleans. I should note that I write about New Orleans not as a distant observer, but as someone who has spent fairly large amounts of time there over the last twenty years. I am saddened, sickened, and disturbed by what is going on there now. But not surprised. New Orleans has always been a city of stark contrasts, extreme poverty (by North American standards at least), and enduring racial divides. Bu today's topic is not what is going on today, but what didn't go on over the last three years. If the emergency response which we have theoretically been pouring tens of billions of dollars into bolstering is this bad when we had several days notice to evacuate people and prepare supplies, troops, etc., how much worse will it be when a natural disaster or terrorist attack hits without warning? As I have previously written, our government seems to be dedicating far more effort to conditioning us to accept a fascist state than they are putting into actually making us safer.

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In a discussion over at The Left Coaster I offered the suggestion that the recently announced alliance between Iran and Iraq could give the American left lots to cheer about: increased stability in Iraq improving the lives of the people and allowing us to bring our troops home AND Bush and the neocons coming out of it looking horrible! Steve Soto asked for some further elaboration, and here is what I came up with.

I think that the Iraqi government is starting to recognize that the United States is not capable of giving them security in either the short- or long-term. While they are happy that they are now in power and not Saddam, they don't see any road to stability in their country that involves the US. They will either find their own way to democracy, which the presence of US troops complicates, or they will find a new strongman.

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On the occasion of Memorial Day we are supposed to think about all of those brave young men and women who have fought and died for our country. We are supposed to honor their sacrifice, and pay homage both to the nation for which they died, and to the patriotic spirit which leads them into combat. It is the motivation of these brave individuals which I would like to examine. Not to question or diminish it, but to wonder why it is so narrowly channelled. Why, I wonder, is our nation so adept at harnessing the sort of altruism which leads some of our best and brightest young men and women to join the military, and so hostile to harnessing that same altruism later in life? This point was brought home to me a few weeks ago on the letter page of the Los Angeles Times. In response to an article about public high schools contemplating banning military recruiters from campus, someone wrote in to praise the fine spirit of the military volunteer. He waxed poetic about how admirable it is for people to think of something bigger than themselves, to learn to stand up for ideals, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. I was immediately struck by the fact that the arguments being made in favor of military service are, in fact, exactly the same arguments that lefties like myself make when we argue in favor of taxation and social programs.

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I was recently asked by a conservative colleague to explain to him the ways in which my personal civil rights had been reduced since 9/11. Clearly there is still some health to our system, as I am allowed to write whatever I want on this blog, and have yet to be hauled off to a gulag. However I encountered a fine example of the growing American fascism this weekend in Albuquerque. As I approached security at the Skyport (the local quaint name for what the rest of us call an Airport), I was instructed to take off my shoes. Being a savvy traveller, I was wearing sneakers which I knew to be completely rubber. I informed the TSA person that my shoes would not set off the metal detector. She informed me that anyone who wore their shoes through the detector would be sent to secondary inspection. When I questioned this I was informed that it was a 'profile' issue and that anyone who wouldn't take off their shoes was supposed to be searched. Obviously this was a lie.

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There was a truly outrageous story on NPR this morning about the US military releasing a report to the public with classified information contained within it. The report in question described the investigation into an incident in which US forces killed an Italian intelligence agent, and injured Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian reporter who had just been released by kidnappers. Some bright mind released the document in a digital format (PDF), and used software formatting to black out classified information. Since the implementation of this formatting keeps all of the information within the file, and just places black over it when it is displayed, it was trivial for technically savvy people to extract the classified information. When questioned about this lapse, a Pentagon spokesman blamed it on 'technical problems.' Bah! I say. This is not a technical failure, it is a gross mismanagement of secure data. Blaming it on technology is pathetic. Almost as pathetic as the NPR reporters accepting the military's description of the problem.

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In yesterday's New York Times there was an op-ed piece by one Michael Scheuer. In this screed Mr. Scheuer argues in favor of extreme rendition, the practice of handing prisoners in the so-called war on terrorism over to nation that we know will torture them. Here is the text of a letter I have sent in to the times in response:

To The Editor:

In his op-ed piece Michael Scheuer eschews morality and legality in the name of results. He makes clear that all parties were aware that they were in clear violation of US laws, and conspired to concoct a cover story to provide the illusion of legitimacy. The complicity of the president himself, whether Bill Clinton of George W. Bush, makes these extra-legal renditions more disgraceful. Both men should be tried for these crimes.

Apparently Mr. Scheuer and various high-ranking government officials have lost sight of the fact that they are sworn to protect not just the people and territory of the United States, but the Constitution and the values embodied in that document as well. The behavior Mr. Scheuer praises bears more resemblance to the tyranny we are supposedly opposing than it does to our own democratic tradition.

Osama bin Laden and his followers may have killed thousands of innocent Americans, but tortured reasoning such as Mr. Scheuer's is killing America.