Torture, Fascism and Our Civilization

I have taken this article from Newsfare as I feel it is full of truths and may help shed some light on the malign power growing South of us.

The Bush Administration long ago used up any impulse the world might have to see it as other than what it is: a group of thugs intent on converting the United States into an authoritarian state, with all limits removed on acts committed by its government.

Further, this ugly regime appears to believe that it can conquer the Middle East by force or threat of force, a plan which can only lead to catastrophic failure with great loss of life.

The current Attorney General believes that the President has the inherent power to overrule any law. This amounts to shredding the U.S. Constitution as well as hundreds of years of common law.

This was given the big green light when all of the Republican Senators (and even 6 Democrats) voted to accept Alberto Gonzales as the Attorney General. We had embarked with a very firm resolve to try to stop this with over 500 bloggers opposing his nomination and many of us wrote letters to all of the Senators about the matter, but all to no avail.

Republicans are in the process of pushing through legislation which allows even the Director of Homeland Security – only a Cabinet member – to disobey existing laws, without the possibility of judicial review. Domestic death squads would be the next logical step. That happened in Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in that country.

Meanwhile the administration has forged ahead with procedures which cancel the venerable law of habeas corpus, discard the right to an attorney, and laugh at prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. A recent Supreme Court decision was essentially flouted by instituting “reviews” before military personnel in which the accused were given “counsel” who were not even lawyers.

In short, the Bush Administration is a de facto fascist regime. There is at present no other suitable word to describe it, unless one wants to adopt Gore Vidal’s concise “the junta.”

In particular, these are fascists in possession of very large numbers of thermonuclear weapons – in missile silos, on bomber aircraft and in undetectable submarines dispersed throughout all the oceans of the world. Each one of these thousands of weapons has many times the power of the atomic bombs unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, sixty years ago this August, which together killed over 100,000 people.

The peril to individuals, to civilization and to the planet itself could not be, and has perhaps never been, greater.

It falls to the people of the United States to turn back this ugly and irrational regime. No one else can do it for us. The hour is late and we must make personal and collective decisions to oppose the destruction of our country, and the clear and present danger presented to the world. We must do so now.

Now this is pretty heavy stuff. I think however, that one point is not erroneous, but perhaps lacking. It falls not only on the citizens of the United States, but rather the citizens of the world to help stop this madness. When mankind stops thinking within the confines of national, religious and political boundary, and starts thinking of themselves as "World Citizens", then times will change, and perhaps peace can be attained!

In regards to this and other battles against the media, injustice and politicians, some results can be seen by concerted efforts of the internet community. In this recent article on PBS, another high level resignation, due to the efforts of politically oriented bloggers! We CAN make a difference!

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If I may add to this, Rhetoric 101 has some excellent parallels to Nazi Germany in their recent article, "Approaching the Tipping Point". Very interesting to be sure.