Category: News and Politics
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051217.html
Read this if you like. If you can still stand behind our President, you're crazy. He says that terrorists are attacking our way of life and threatening the world we live in since September 11th. Oh really? In my opinion the only ones attacking our "freedom" and "our way of life" since that day have been the politicians. So spying on our citizens is the best way to now stop terrorists from attacking our country? So when my aunt and uncle move to England does that mean if I call them that my international phone call is subject to any sort of monitoring? If you didn't hear this week that the NSA has been monitoring hundreds maybe even thousands of international phone calls without any sort of permission, well, it's going on. After reading this article you can see that it was our Pres's call to go ahead with it too. As if the support for him could take another shot (even though approval polls were up this week after his Iraq speeches). Anyway, back to my hypothetical situation. I have no criminal record, and both my aunt and uncle are government employees! Maybe better to monitor them, if that's how you think. Anyway...
So the Patriot Act (which does incredibly more damage than it does good) is about to go down. One can only hope that an act that was seemingly rushed through to "help" our unending plight with terrorism was finally looked at, and some thoughtful lawmakers stopped and said "Hey, maybe this isn't the way we should be doing things?"
Ok, so I know through most of the article you are saying that "Hey, he says that it was all kosher, it was consistent with the law and the constitution. They have to have a clear link between these people and prospective terrorist members or cells overseas right? He's not lying is he??" Oh gee, we've never acted on misguided information or flat out incorrect information. Or not acted on intelligence that clearly stated WE COULE BE UNDER ATTACK FROM AL-QAEDA WITH THE USE OF AIRPLANES USED AS BOMBS. That's not the exact quote, but you know what I'm saying. So it was such a clear line between these monitored calls and terrorists, why the huge cover up? Why is this information that people should not have known? If we live in a world where we have to be informed to prevent the onslaught of terrorist attacks, why shouldn't we know that they are monitoring calls between suspicious parties?? Draw your own conclusions on that one. And how it correlates to "keeping consistent with the Constitution?" It's all interpretation, so go your own way on that.
Also note the amount of time it took to give this speech, and how many time she mentioned September 11th. Sure the topic is terrorism, but he's sure quick to not let you forget what will happen if you don't let him do what he wants. He does have your best interests in mind, remember?
Also keep in mind that during this whole time, if you do your research that top NSA officials did not want to participate in this practice. Basically what you have are Bush sympathizers backdoor-ing the superiors who instructed them not to take part in what has been going on.
So how do we bounce back and forth between protecting our civil liberties and protecting ourselves from terrorism? If I could answer that you'd be watching me on every major news outlet and not reading this on fucking my space, (obvious). Sure you have to dip your toes on both sides of the water, but how far does this all go? How far can the government reach into your way of life and file it under the category of "I'm protecting your civil rights?" These things don't happen overnight folks; it takes months, years, and different administrations to carry out these things. I'm not saying we are becoming a dictatorship, because that's just plain crazy, it'll never happen. However, you can see how things are falling into place if you open your eyes to what is going on. Is the threat really that bad? We don't know what to do. I feel like we are lost when it comes to terrorism. I don't feel any safer because my eyes are open to how the world is working now. We aren't indestructible. We aren't invincible. If anything we are going starkly in the opposite direction.
I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, because I still feel sick and terrible about the events that happened on 9/11, and if it ever happened again it would be a terrible tragedy. However, when you look at what we are spending money on, intelligence that doesn't work or is false, wars that have no end in sight with countries that had no single missile or weapon that could have attacked us. Of course they harbor terrorists; every country in that region does it!! Jesus people, what are we doing here? Sure we get a great foothold in the region, we snuff out terrorism in that area and we are in the middle of shitstorm because every fundamentalist Muslim in the area has their crosshairs smack dab between our eyes. The idea of terrorism is not to face us head on, it never has been! They won't attack us where it's obvious, and it won't be over in Iraq. They know now that they have no problems attacking us on our own soil. I've read a few books on the Islamic religion and its beliefs after 9/11, and the people that are the ones fighting this war against us and our way of life are not going to stop. They are not going to stop fighting us until every one of them is dead. These people are willing to die for what they believe in. Are we all so ready to do the same? It makes me sad every time I see another young life taken in this war that's taking place. Sure they signed up for the job, but don't you think you'd want to believe that we wouldn't send them to war if it weren't completely necessary?
Right now the terrorists are winning. I know that statement is overused, but this is what they want. We hear this everyday, the FOX NEWS ticker every morning at work tells me that the terror alert is ELEVATED. I've never seen that change. Why? There are a ton of reasons, but I'm not sure if I'm running out of room.
Here's the long and short of my drivel listed above. I was against going to war in the first place, but now we're in it and we have to stick with it and come to the best possible ending. I'm all for stopping terrorism, but were we really that worse off when the Presidential power shifted from Clinton to Bush? It happened on his watch. I don't care what you say, well I do, but I have a strong opinion about this, but this Patriot Act and so on and so forth wasn't even Bush's or his administrations idea! It was something that was concocted under Clinton, but then it was interpreted by Bush and made an ineffective mess. Sure we had our terrorist issues under Clinton, but not as bad as 9/11. So who do you blame it on? You can't blame it on anyone, and that's the problem this country has. All they want to do is sit around and point fingers at who dropped the ball to further their agenda, and that in itself is very sad. Nothing will get solved because of all the government infighting. We can set aside differences to take care of what we need to take care of. Also, as long as we remain a presence in "their land" we will continue to be the subject of terrorist acts and threats. They see us being over their as a slap in the face. The area has been fighting each other tooth and nail since the beginning of time! Are we so big that we think we can stop it? I hope not.
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