CommentMax
Six Months: The Good and the Bad  
Steve Farrell
March 28, 2002


It has been six months and two weeks since the Sept. 11. attack on American soil, when Islamic thugs, who hate our culture, hate our liberties, hate our religious values and hate our friendship with Israel, took the lives of thousands of innocent Americans.


Sept. 11 was a sad day in American History.


Sure it was. But sad isn't always all bad. There is always an upside.


1. The strain of war, the heartbreak of catastrophe, the crisis of an enemy attack has brought out not just the worst but also the best in human nature, yielding greater thinking, greater faith, greater heroism, greater sacrifice, greater love, greater unity and greater patriotism than we've seen in America in a good long while. Wars can do this. This is good.


2. Many of the terrorist thugs who perpetrated this unprecedented attack are no longer with us. And although some will call it callous, the world is a safer, freer, more loving place as a result of justice being meted out upon these wicked few. This is good.


3. The world is not yet free of every terrorist, not by a long shot. This is bad. Nonetheless, for those terrorists who survive, the surprising resolve and strength of the United States has given them pause, causing many of them to alter their busy lives of plotting against innocents to busy lives of being fugitives, or to lives filled with disquietude, detention, deprivation, disease and death – the very things these goons in gowns once inflicted upon others.

Joining those who have already met their maker, these fleeing fugitives have found out that the eternal law, "crime doesn't pay," is proven true, sooner or later. This is good.


4. As for those collaborator cutthroats – the mass-murdering Saddam Husseins of the world – they, too, have been put on notice that their day of judgment is coming. This, too, is good.


For all of the above and more, we can say with confidence, "Sad isn't always all bad." Sept. 11 marks a day of catastrophe, but it also marks a day of awakening for millions of Americans and a day of reproof for bad guys.


Well, so there we have it. Bad guys can do terrible things against good guys, and to their utter frustration good comes of it. And perhaps it is a law of nature that man shall be refined in the furnace of affliction, not by a series of uneventful walks in the park.

OK – The Above Summation Is a Bit Too Simple


But let's not oversimplify things or get over-inflated with the idea that they are without a doubt bad and we, by comparison, are without a doubt good, and this being the case, whatsoever is the nature of our retaliation, it must be right.


Before Sept. 11, we had the world's greatest country. But admittedly, we also had a colossal share of homegrown goons in gowns, slimes in thousand-dollar suits, Democrats in drag, and communists masquerading as congressmen, college professors, columnists and "newsmen," who were, by the way, making things quite comfortable and profitable for these murderous terrorists and their comrades.


So here's the wake-up call. Since Sept. 11 these homegrown enemies haven't gone away, haven't been arrested, haven't booked themselves a reservation in Afghanistan's finest "five-star cave," haven't let up one iota in their hatred of Christianity, capitalism, the Constitution and American sovereignty, haven't abandoned their fierce devotion to the coming fascist new world order – the dearest object of their worship.

No, audacious and proud, they still hold the reins on the information flow, and are the very ones entrusted to devise the laws, forge the alliances, and spread the propaganda that will "save" the U.S. and the world from the crisis of terrorism, the very crisis they have for so long prayed for.


So let's get something straight. Every "intellectual" and "patriot" has jumped on the bandwagon to "fight" terrorism nowadays, indeed! But by what means? And who do they call terrorist and who freedom fighter?


Reality Check


On Sept. 11 a slumbering giant was roused from his sleep, but being the public-educated fellow that the giant was, after drawing his sword, which was certainly the right thing to do, and after striking the villain in the heart, which was most certainly the right thing to do, he came upon schemes to defeat the enemy which were devised by America's homegrown enemies, who see a prospect rising from the rubble. Examples abound.

1. Supremacy of U.N. Charter

The president of the United States has waged an impressive war against terror, thus far. But hold on! The president, under the advice of his new-world-order-loving privy council, neither sought nor thought necessary a formal declaration of war from Congress, as our Constitution requires, but did seek and thought essential the support and sanction of the Security Council of the United Nations.

In the process, a Security Council resolution was passed, which for the first time in U.N. history mandated that all nations comply with the measures promoted, or else.


The bad news: The United Nations Charter, not the U.S. Constitution, rose from the rubble as victor.


2. The Foulest Mass Murderer of Them All

Hand in hand with the empowerment of the U.N. is our foolish empowerment, as an ally, that nation which worked behind the scenes during the old Soviet Era to establish the anti-American U.N., and who is, in fact, the real power broker, the trainer, the weapons supplier of the terrorists we fight, even mass-murdering Russia (most recently the mass slaughterer of 100,000 of its own civilians in Chechnya) and China as well.

In this regard, in his most famous of speeches the president decried Nazism, fascism and tyranny as the mass murderers of the 20th century, but failed to name the foulest mass murderer of them all, communism.

Likewise, in commenting on Northern Alliance atrocities and ties to the "old" Soviet Union and the "new" Russia, the current administration and its secretary of defense have developed an attitude that is at times callous and at times a cover-up.


The bad news: The old familiar monstrous "mistake" will be "discovered" after the dust clears. America defeats a tyrant, and then turns over the control of that tyrant, the tyrant's spoils, and mounds of U.S. aid to a greater, far more dangerous tyrant, Russia and the Commonwealth of "Independent" States (CIS).

As for our new callousness regarding ally atrocities, in time we will see eroded the just war/moral codes of warfare and prisoner treatment that American soldiers have traditionally upheld, and our moral high ground routed.

3. Future Instruments of Terror

The president created a homeland security apparatus that has been used as the central power structure to track down terrorists associated with Sept. 11. Very good.

But hold on! This snoop agency has given the federal government vast new spy powers, empowered itself to arrest people without due process (they have curtailed some of their original proposals in this regard – for the time being), without trial by jury, without an appeal process before an independent court, without normal rules of evidence. A "suspected" terrorist may be convicted on hearsay "evidence."


Perhaps worse, this new super agency holds not just executive but also judicial power in its hand, and is accountable in the exercise of this power strictly to the executive. The Constitution, on the other hand, demands that the heads of such agencies be subject to the advice and consent of Congress, and that judicial power reside solely in the judiciary.


The bad news: Maybe we've forgotten that the judicial rights we enjoy in this country are not just for U.S. citizens, they are, each and every one of them, biblically based – from God and Nature – and as such are the common rights of all men, rich or poor, Christian or Infidel, citizen or stranger. That is why we call them inalienable.

Therefore, no king, no democratically elected government can legislate them away without displeasing God. But we have done so – in order to fight terrorism.

A perfect formula, a foolish step toward making the law and its executors, someday, instruments of terror themselves. You can count on it.

4. Wait Till Hillary Has the Power

Leading "conservatives" argue in favor of the military tribunals just mentioned, some even canvassing in favor of U.S. citizens "suspected" of committing or collaborating in such crimes to be subject to the same tribunals, this being "necessary," they say, because the current judicial system is too corrupt, the liberal media's grip on manipulating public opinion so pervasive that such trials would be turned into pro-terrorist circuses. Granted, they may be right.


The bad news. Once again, conservative activism is as guilty of dismantling our Constitution as is liberal activism. Conservatives have come to accept as their gospel Marx's specious claim that "the ends justify the means."

Rather than vigorously stand up and insist that the Constitution be enforced as the Founders intended, that traitors to our liberties be exposed for who they are, they readily beat the traitors at their own game. "Ah," the liberal quips, "just wait till Hillary has that same power you Republicans just granted the president!"

5. AWACS Patrols

In support of homeland security, the president invited NATO AWACS manned by foreign crews, some of them from "ex" communist countries, to patrol our shores and be stationed at our military bases.


The bad news: Although the measure was limited and temporary, it created the first precedent in U.S. history for a foreign standing army in the United States. We fought a revolutionary war over this issue, and now we wonder, what's next? Troops in U.N. blue patrolling our streets and black helicopters guarding our skies?


6. Death Knell of Liberty

We deem it correct to carry on this war against terrorism "no matter how long it takes," by "whatever means necessary."


The bad news: Israel, the only true ally and democratic state in the Middle East, is not permitted to do the same. They must compromise with terrorism or lose our support.


More bad news: War is the dearest friend of kings, an open-ended state of war the death knell of liberty.


7. News-Speak

An American president established a formal office of disinformation, with false press releases for foreign and domestic consumption. The measure has been temporarily scrapped due to public outcry.


The bad news: News-speak is now a Republican Party priority.


8. Disinformation Overkill

Speaking of disinformation, after Sept. 11, two airliners, one over the Black Sea (filled with Jews) and another in New York, went down, killing everyone on board, and within minutes of the crashes the United States government was covering for Russia, calling the missile shootdown over the Black Sea an accident, and a probable sabotage in New York the result of "turbulence."

Meanwhile, the administration has continued the Clinton cover-up of an Iraqi connection in the (blame-it-on-the-right-wing) Oklahoma City bombing, and of evidence of missile shootdown of the infamous Flight 800. Lesser examples abound.


The bad news: A formal office of disinformation smacks of overkill.

9. Exploitation of Crises

Under the guise of "fighting terrorism," the current administration and its party have advanced domestic socialism on every front, from the vast expansion of the federal role in education, to a 50 percent increase in the length of time for unemployment benefits, to the creation of a vast new national "service" program (one Republican bill mandates this "service" for all), to a refusal of the simple, pro-Second Amendment solution of permitting pilots to be armed to fight air terror, in favor of the complex, rights-eroding solutions that put military troops in every airport, federalized tens of thousands of airport employees, and created legions of burdensome regulations.


The bad news. When an enemy is defeated, we should be more, not less, free – but when opportunistic politicians get involved, crises are exploited, so that in victory, freedoms expire.


10. No Accountability

The current administration has gone after the terrorists admirably, but it has refused to investigate and hold accountable officials within the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department who knew a good many things but sat on the information, occasioning the deaths of thousands, a decline in our liberties, and the raising of our taxes.


The bad news. The good old boys who set us up for this trouble are still in power. Clinton cover-ups continue under a Republican administration.

The likely result: Wars and rumors of wars will increase, not decrease, over the long term. Either we are serious about accountability before the law, or we are not. If we are not, you can kiss America goodbye.


Contact Steve at [email protected].