Fast Track to Tyranny 10.19.07: Preparing the People

Posted by Brian McLain on 10.18.2007

The lastest article in the Fast Track to Tyranny features a bit of review and a change of pace from Act and Executive Order dissecting to take a closer look as to why the question "Why not torture bad guys?" is a stupid question.

Good day to every one of my faithful readers. That's right, all three of you I thank you for joining me again for another edition of Fast Track to Tyranny. I apologize for my lack of an article last week; it was a rough one for me as I had midterms for 6 classes as I speed my way to a History/Political Science/Secondary Education degree. Speed might not be the word; however I suspect any of you college folks would understand. I'm going to switch gears a bit this article and go over something that has really been bugging me over the past two weeks. That is, as you would notice from the article, the preparation, or taming if you will, of the People of these United States. Over the past several weeks I have expressed deep concern over the various bits of legislation and actions taken by our benevolent federal government, here's a bit of review for those of you who might just be joining in on the fun:

Military Commissions Act of 2006: The break down of barriers of removing the Citizenship and legal resident status of any person in the United States and replacing it with a much less desirable status of "enemy combatant". With that particular designation it takes said person out of Constitutional jurisdiction and places them into military jurisdiction. Further the act repeals Habeas Corpus (sort of, it's still a constitutional right, however how can one challenge the constitutionality if one cannot get out of jail into the court) and removes congressional oversight in matters of interrogation methods and torture definitions.

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007: An allocation of funds to the tune of $500 billion is given a designation as may be used for "Use of Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies", repeals Posse Comitatus and legalizes the federalization of National Guard troops for normal police duties, not just enforcement of federal law. In short, it is the establishment of a foundation for martial law.

Patriot Act I and II: Of course these two beauties were the first out of the gate, breaking down checks and balances and removing due process everywhere, allowing all policing and intelligence agencies to share information with one another without court involvement.

REAL ID Act of 2005: Slipped by in a defense spending bill, this act provides requirements for all states to follow in creating a national ID card with implanted radio frequency chip. With out such ID, by 2009, you may not be qualified for and federal services, access to federal facilities, ability to board an aircraft or even be allowed in an airport, or possibly obtain legal work in the United States.

NSPD (National Security Presidential Directive) 51: In the event of a national emergency, decided upon and defined by the President and the Director of Homeland Security, the President may, effectively, rule all branches of government from federal to tribal by decree. While this sort of language is hard to decipher in the declassified text of this document, the text does elude to such likelihood, with the added effect of the majority of the document being classified, not to be viewed by ANYBODY, including members of Congress or the Court.

Now I will take a video heavy stroll into another action of the government…and media. The preparation of the people to accept certain actions as just fine so long as it is for acceptable reasons, regardless of whether the threat exists or not. My first stop is the repackaging of torture.





I really started to fume on this topic after listening to a segment of the Rush Limbaugh show, in which the guest host asked the question "Why not torture? If there is, in fact, real cause for concern that a city may be in danger of absolute destruction, why not?"

This really got me thinking through the way that torture has been slowly repackage and sold to the American public as a viable way to obtain effective and true information. And with the actions taken by our federal government in the War on Terror, what would it take to get the American public to find such actions taken against United States Citizens and legal residents as digestible and acceptable? Let me break my way of thinking down a little bit more…

Torture has been on the minds of almost every American since the Abu Grahib fiasco. The fallout from this situation made light of the concept of torturous humiliation, pain, the mutilating of body parts and desecration of bodies. Immediately, presidential ass kissers began to explain the actions as little more than "college hazing" and "pranks" and then played off that the prisoners were "bad people anyway". Really? Such actions would get one arrested and imprisoned anymore, however, while the United States does not torture, because the President says so, even if such behavior is authorized it isn't that bad.

Since that time, this concept of torture for the good of all has been slowly fed to the American public through its use in shows such as 24, talking down by radio show hosts, and by the President himself making a mockery of the whole deal by saying "The United States does not torture" yet the President himself, along with the Secretary of Defense, has the only authorization to determine what actions are actually torture. Easy to say you aren't breaking the rules when you have the authority to change the rules at will, isn't it?

Now I hear from every rooftop Neocons shouting out how these are people who chop off people's heads and show the video on the internet! These are people who flew planes into buildings and blew them up! They do so many wrong, bad and evil things, why do we not have the right to take some bamboo shoots to some fingernails to guarantee another 9-11 doesn't happen?! Good question…allow me to answer.

Time and time again it has been proven that the best way to win a war is to treat one's prisoners of war with the absolute best accommodations and respect the one can. I'm not saying book them in the Hyatt and feed them filet mignon, but I am saying that as fellow soldiers one must give a soldier's respect and, at the same time, feed them well enough to be full, give proper accommodation to be some what comfortable, BECOME THEIR FRIEND. Some might see this as a bit odd of me to say, and I can hear gnashing teeth from my readers even as I type this, however, when one treats one's enemies better as prisoners then such prisoners would be treated as a free soldier back with their regimen, they start thinking differently. Removing the dehumanized face that was painted into the back of their mind about those who they had been fighting would create a very confused individual. One wouldn't know how to handle such a situation, and further, one would not have as much of a desire to fight one they would view as an equal or friend. This worked wonders prior to the German invasion of France by Kaiser ruled Germany. Otto Von Bismarck was a very brilliant military mind, who suggested German soldiers take vacations to the border towns of France and deep into the countryside, and take their families. Eat at the restaurants, become friends with the locals, treat everyone with respect and gratitude, let your wives mingle and your children play together. When invasion time came about, the only obstacle the Germans had on their way to Paris was small talk with the friendly locals and friendly greetings.

Besides the strategic advantages of not torturing people, let's also take into consideration that torture to extract confession is a very unreliable method of getting crucial and factually true information from ANYBODY. If anybody had decided to waterboard you, simulating a drowning experience, then picks you back up after several minutes of this horrifying experience and state that if you did not tell that person that you did crime X the waterboarding would continue, wouldn't YOU be compelled to spill the guts that you never had in the first place?

That is the "them" argument, now let me focus on the "we" argument. If torture is accepted by the American public as acceptable under certain circumstances, at what point do those circumstances stop? Today it is Jack Bauer looking for a nuke, tomorrow could be a domestic serial killer, the day after theft, the day after that vandalism. Perhaps this is a little extreme on the timeline, however with the current state of mind of some of those who have no problem with torturing those who "deserve it" for the good of all Americans, could you see such individuals arguing the same case? What about those who protest peacefully and refuse to move from a scene with just a simple push and a shove? If there is one thing torture is useful for, it is great for manipulating the actions of anybody, regardless of the strength of will and spirit. Take the following video for example:



When the Nazis came for the communist,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller

Torture is not the answer in ANY situation, regardless of what might be portrayed by Mr. Jack Bauer on "24". This constant belief that if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about, and these tactics are only being used on those who deserve it are tired and ultimately ignorant. For if we allow one individual to be treated in such an inhumane way, and then we are subjecting ourselves to likely the same treatment, should we step out of the bounds set by someone else. As we find ourselves in this horrible cycle of war and fear, a quote by Nietzsche comes to mind:

"He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster."

Good day, everyone. I will be back next week at my normal time of Wednesday with the exciting wrap up of the Fast Track to Tyranny Series and a look at my next project.