U.S. Mercenaries

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Ever since the tragedy of the World Trade Center in New York there has been an accelerated assault of basic liberties in the USA from the Patriot Act onwards. The amount of chicanery and outright lying by government officials is quite obvious in breaking down the barriers to the invasion of privacy, all in the name of national security, and with little evidence that much if any terrorist activity has actually taken place and any analysis or inquiry in the matter is totally obstructed on the unsubstantiated grounds of national security. The bulk of the prisoners at Guantanamo are held on exceedingly dubious grounds and even these fragile declarations of national danger are held under the cover that clear information as to their validity cannot be released under the guise of national security.

Ever since the internet and telephone communication have been made transparent to government inspection the government has surreptitiously slid into both legal and illegal intervention in these areas and the absolute totalitarian supervision of all citizenry in all aspects of life are more and more coming to resemble the dire predictions of the distopian novel “1984”.

These invasions are alarming enough to one sold on the ideals of the U.S. Constitution and its guaranteed rights but the rise of the commercial military, the mercenary armies, which now outnumber the regular armed forces now in combat in the Middle East seems to be a pointed threat to the assumed freedoms of the USA. I have tried to look into several Internet sites on the matter and found them mysteriously blocked. I could accept that chance and mismanagement might destroy one or two sites but more than that seems to indicate positive interference. One open site I discovered was at http://rebelreports.com/post/98982420/u ... enaries-to
The use of mercenaries has been condemned by the UN and, as with the US prison systems, if it can be made profitable, it will expand to the detriment of normal social requirements and the general assumed freedoms of society. A good deal of the criticism of the US military presence in the Middle East is that the aims of this interference remain rather mysterious. Originally it was to defeat al Qaeda but it has been reported that few if any of these people remain in Afghanistan and those have easy access to Pakistan where they seem more welcome. In any case, their threat to the USA seems negligible considering the massive security measures now in force in the USA and the huge intelligence network throughout the world that sifts through possibilities and nabs plots in the offing before they become realized. In any case, the military operations don’t seem to impinge on these secretive terrorist operations. The huge increase of drone operations are regularly reported to be hugely successful in obliterating wedding and funeral parties full of women and children and may, perhaps also knock out a few low level anti-US guerrillas but in general they seem to more arouse counter-attacks by previously unaligned civilians whose families have been devastated than be an effective anti-al Qaeda operation. And the mercenary forces, which are protected from local laws, regularly re-enforce the anti-US sentiment by outrageous massacres of local bystanders for no sensible reason whatsoever.

What concerns me about these commercially organized mercenaries is that they constitute a ready threat to whatever democracy remains in the USA. They are well armed, and, at the behest of any corporate or government group that finds the notion feasible and can supply the necessary funds, they might be capable of a military takeover of the US Government. It seems a worthwhile consideration since they were used in the New Orleans problem and are available if other methods to control the public prove insufficient.

There has been an assault on individual liberty since the founding of the Republic.
The Alien and Sedition acts of the John Adams administration was a much more vigorous assault on free speech and free press than anything in recent times.

Newspapers were closed and even destroyed during the Civil War on both sides. People were arrested and denied the privilege of habeus corpus.

The Comstock acts at the end of the 19-th century was censorship simpliciter. Newspaper publishing was controlled during both the Great War and WW2. The great Red Scare duing the 1920s. The McCarthy Era ( I was around for that one, so I know what I am talking about). I do not see this acceleration you allude to. It was always there and there were times when it was a lot worse than it is now.

It is not useful to exaggerate things. Getting the facts is a much more useful activity.

ruveyn

That the past has seen violations of basic rights is no indication that they are not endangered now. What have I exaggerated?

What people in the US don't seem to understand is, why is it that they (who were the victims) of 9/11, have to have their rights of freedom and privacy taken away? Al Qaeda was supposedly responsible, so why are they (US citizens) paying the price? Why does the government want to keep a closer eye on you if you were the victims? What reason could there be? You know your ordinary citizens have no ties with Al Qaeda, so why keep an eye on them? Why don't people ask these questions?

Threats to civil liberties come and go - somehow we manage to come back from them somehow. Right now we're sliding back because people got freaked out after 9/11 and have been fed a steady diet of fear from the media. On the other hand, America as a society has more access to information than in previous times like this so hopefully we'll turn away from this and become a better society with more rights and liberties for all. As I believe Franklin said, "Those who would trade safety for liberty, deserve neither." I agree with this 100%.

And "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"

See http://freedomkeys.com/vigil.htm

That' backwards. "Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither." There is quite a difference.

You gave the impression, or least I got the impress that the problem is worse now than in the past. I just do don't see any facts to support that impression. Did I get the wrong impression?

The government has always (since 1787) threatened the liberties of its citizens. In 1794 General Washington and Alexander Hamilton lead a tax-raid against the yoemen of Pennsylvania to collect the whiskey tax. 13,000 armed troops marched against Pennsylvania wheat farmers. That is far more troops than was ever launched against the Brits during the Revolution. Now tell me that something as egregious as that has happened since 9/11. Please specify times, dates, places and the nature of the acts you allege to be accelerating attacks on our liberty. And be specific. No generalities, if you please.

Personally, no one has interfered with my expression of distaste for our government. I detest our government and have said so in many times in many places. I have not been visited or threatened by any government person. No action has been taken against me. So tell me how my rights and liberties and undergoing accelerating threats from the government.

Instead of expressing your opinions which are as doubtful as mine, how about producing documented facts indicating this accelerated attack against our liberties. Facts, not opinions, if you please. Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has at least one. Facts are solid and dependable.

ruveyn

True - my bad, that's what I get for posting before I get coffee

So the Patriot Act and the covert tortures and assassinations of the CIA are merely good standard government to your eyes. Or haven't you heard about that?

Do not call to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

Torture against foreign enemies. More power to the CIA. Foreign Enemies and Americans fighting for them have no rights under our Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees rights for Americans, not for foreigners.

In WW2 we killed women and children in the hundreds of thousands. Not a single rights violation there. It was War.

ruveyn

But of course. I forgot your delight and general enthusiasm for sadism. May you be accorded with like treatment when the time comes.

Torture is pretty well established as being a crime against humanity under international law, including treaties that we have signed. It is also a violation of Federal law - there is no legal right to torture ANYONE - though we have ignored the law and conveniently redefined what torture is but that's another issue. The Constitution is not as a whole only applicable to Americans. For example, illegal immigrants have a constitutional right to be treated in US hospitals for emergencies, if a foreign citizen comes to the US and drives drunk and is arrested - s/he has the same right to due process as a US citizen. The few provisions that have citizenship requirements deal with holding elective office.

Assassinations/torture/etc. every government engages in, every government covers up. What bothers me is that we've gone from covering it up, to making it seem like it's legal and legitimate - and that is worrying.

And in WWII Nazi Germany slaughtered millions!

The ONLY reason why Nazis were punished for their dirty deads is because Germany lost the war. Since the Nazis made extensive use of slave labor during the war, by ruveyns logic it was in the Nazis best interest to exterminate the jews, gypsies, soviet POWs, and others that they used for slave labor because had they not these people would've taken revenge following Germany's crushing defeat. After all, it was war, right?

Last edited by MEATGRINDER on 02 Apr 2010, 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah and there is also something called the Geneva Convention signed in 1929 that establish the basic rights of soldiers captured during a military conflict. Although these things don´t work so well in practice at least sometimes...

It is better to win than to lose.

ruveyn