Furthermore, I’m still at a loss as to how we ended up in Iraq anyway. 20/20 hindsight, bad idea, right? Was anyone reading this, thinking - spend a few trillion, lose a few thousand, and get proved to be full of hot air back when Mr. Blix reported no WMDs in Iraq? Maybe we should inaugurate a new test for voting privileges, not based on color or creed, but based on some critical reasoning, civic willingness tests. If you can’t follow the argument: no WMDs discovered, most of world against military action, already heated from WTC bombing - leave the country ALONE! - then why should you be invited to share your opinion? That’s what people used to think of democracy, and Bush has finally proved it correct - democracy allows too many morons in the deciding-process, thereby allowing many bad decisions. Bush capitalized on anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S., general panic about dying in a terrorist attack, and some genuine dictatorial policies of rowdy Saddam to engage with a country and a man for his own purposes - which I know enough to know I do not know what they are. Whatever the reason(s), the only acceptable one is Saddam’s atrocities, which weren’t the only atrocities being committed at the time, so the only logical action is: NOTHING! (unless you want to use the military to curb all atrocities…)

U.S. military intelligence officers told the Red Cross that between 70 and 90 percent of detainees in Iraq were “deprived of their liberty… [and] had been arrested by mistake.”78
The “cordon and capture,” “sweep and keep” approach turned the U.S. military effort into a numbers game as fraudulent as the body counts of the Vietnam war. Military units were evaluated based on how many Iraqis they brought in, not on whether those nabbed were guilty. The soldiers bringing in the suspects had no obligation to provide evidence that detainees were complicit in anything aside from living in an area unlucky enough to be targeted by a U.S. raid. No effort was usually made to screen detainees to determine who might have valuable information. Instead, the population was treated as if all Iraqi adult males were collectively guilty for the actions of the insurgents. Detainees in Abu Ghraib were routinely held for six months based on no evidence—simply as a result of delays in their release.

(http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts187.html)

According to Reuters, America has 2.2 million prisoners - the highest number of prisoners in the world.

(http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1209-01.htm)

Of course, in America they don’t make you wear panties on your head or subject you to loud music - they put a 400 pound cretin in your cell named Bubba who is fond of anal sex. This is sort of like a fraternity prank. That is if you belong to the Skull & Bones.

The rule of law seems to be thriving in America. The problem is with the laws being enacted. The law may be an ass, but the people who make and enforce unjust laws are generally assholes. And there is a guy named Bubba who would like to meet them.

I believe Bush adapted these tactics from local police here in the USA, long before Iraq. He must have figured Iraq would be “a piece of cake,” especially after the Persian Gulf war and after all the airings of the reality based edited for TV show COPS (Fox network.)

I figured, given so many “mindless masses” would not have a historical clue over US foreign policy, and never believe 9/11 was a result of it (US foreign policy) then US troops looking exactly like nazi German troops of WW II would also behave like them too. And they have.

Plenty of US troops may look back, years later, with tremendous guilt; especially if they ever learn about the true nature of US foreign policy.

I’m not surprised: before 9/11 I’ve been harassed at most places on a regular basis wherever I go. Police. The victims know.

When I read about the virtues of Habeus Corpus or Due Process it’s like being able to see again; a reminder that some still believe in the Bill of Rights.

Waco and the Oklahoma city federal building were the result of an excessive and bullying government that has swept important freedoms under a convenient rug. Many of these people who claim to pursue righteous things are getting thousands of Americans killed. They are attempting to force humans to do things unnatural. Gun control cannot avoid the trampling of self defense - gun control is undignified the same as being forced to turn the other cheek over and over. Passiveness is not natural. A socialist has a corrupted brain. That’s why so many are crooks disguised as politicians. But neocons (the saviours of our gun rights) are equally destructive.

The trampling of rights is led by our newsmedia that thirsts for news. It exposes these “plunderers” on a daily basis but then endorses the worst ones on pre-election day (Bush was “a genius”). Little do they know their efforts to profit, and care for their young, are helping to enslave the next generation (their offspring). A socialist has a thirsty ego too, nothing benevolent or altruistic. It takes an unselfish person to stick to our Constitution.

Sixty years ago, conservatives were rightfully enthralled with Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. Hayek’s insights and warnings seem to have all been forgotten.

His chapter on “Why the Worst Get on Top” is especially instructive for the war on terror in our times.

I’m not sure Bush’s policies are the worst foreign policy disaster - Wilson getting into the First World War may have caused more lasting harm and more domestic repression.

But Bush has two more years to exceed Wilson’s carnage.

Surely there are good examples from history of how “socialist legality” in the Soviet Union or national socialist Germany created results like these.

I think my attempt at warblogger parody was misconstrued…