We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
    By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
    t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

    Tuesday 06 March 2007

    When read in the context of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States of America (the Constitution) is truly one of the most impressive documents of governance ever written. It contains approximately 4,300 words, was completed in 1787, and 220 years later is the oldest operating constitution in the world. Compare this with the proposed Constitution of the European Union, which is approximately 60,000 words and not yet ratified.

    The Constitution in its original form was far from perfect. Written into the document were justifications for oppression and slavery such as Article I, Section 2, known as the three-fifths compromise; Article I, Section 9, allowing the slave trade to exist until 1808, and Article IV, Section 2, allowing the rendition or capture and return of escaped slaves to the "... Party to whom such Service or Labor may be due." In spite of these flaws, at its core are the revolutionary principles of natural law and social contract theory as articulated in the Declaration of Independence. These concepts forever changed how people view themselves in relation to their government. It is not the words that make these documents great; it is America's reverence for these concepts that make the Constitution what it is.

    Natural law states that people possess the God-given or natural right to govern themselves, as opposed to the earlier concept of divine justification of a king or monarch. Social contract theory is the idea that people in a civilized society consent to be governed by a set of standards and elect representatives in order to protect these natural rights. Most importantly, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, "... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...." In other words, the People must always hold their elected representatives accountable for their actions.

    Since its inception, the Constitution has been the world standard for liberty, equality, and justice under the law. For example, in 1945 the Vietnamese based their documents of freedom upon our own. The European Union in 2003 and the Iraqi Constitution in 2005 were also based upon our Constitution. According to a June 25, 1996, Wall Street Journal report, only 39 countries (25 percent of the world's independent nations) were democratic in 1974. By 1996, 66 percent of the world's independent nations were implementing democratic processes to choose their top leaders. Those numbers have continued to grow - again, based upon the US model.

    Outside of the political realm, as multinational corporations have expanded their reach and influence through globalization, American concepts of fairness and equality as articulated in the Constitution, have been used internationally to address sweat shops, child labor, women's rights, illegal detention and ecological racism in many foreign countries. For many decades, in spite of its imperfections, America, because of the Constitution, has been the stalwart of democracy and the beacon of hope for many people throughout the world.

    Have the actions of the current Bush administration forever tarnished America's reputation in the minds of those abroad? According to a PEW Research Center survey, an independent research company "... anti-Americanism is deeper and broader now than at any time in modern history.... On matters of international security, the rest of the world has become deeply suspicious of US motives and openly skeptical of its word."

    On the domestic front, laws that cut at the core of American democracy have been implemented without public debate. According to the New York Times, "The president can now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, ... terrorist attack or to any "other condition." In October 2006, at the very last minute, the administration slipped into the defense budget bill provisions to undercut posse comitatus and the Insurrection Act of 1807. These two actions now make it easier for the president to declare martial law. It is the undefined "other condition" that should be of greatest concern to the American public. The fact that this was added to the defense bill by the administration and the Democrats did nothing to bring it to the public's attention is reprehensible.

    Also, habeas corpus, a person's right to object to his or another's detention or imprisonment, has been weakened. According to the Associated Press, a federal appeals court has held that foreign-born prisoners seized as terrorists by the US government and held offshore may not challenge their detention in US civilian courts. It is now left up to military tribunals to police themselves and make this determination according to the Military Commissions Act. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) stated, this is a dangerous and misguided law that undercuts our freedoms and assaults our Constitution by removing vital checks and balances that would restore detainees' legal rights. This could gravely impact approximately 12 million lawful permanent residents who currently reside in the US.

    The Bush administration constantly admonishes those who question their motives and challenge the constitutionality of their actions. Members of the administration accuse critics of emboldening the "insurgents" and sending the wrong message to our troops and our enemies. With it now being easier for the president to declare martial law as well as chipping away at the constitutionally guaranteed right of habeas corpus, the US is looking more and more like the dictatorships it went to war to overthrow. What message is that sending? The US will impose democracy upon others at the barrel of a gun, but usurp and violate its own constitution when following its precepts proves to be inconvenient.

    Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

    The US invaded Iraq in order to overthrow an evil dictator who, among other things, imprisoned and tortured his critics in order to silence them. According to the Guardian Unlimited, "... at the US detention camp at Guant a1namo Bay in Cuba.... According to the Red Cross, the regime at Guant a1namo causes psychological suffering that has driven inmates mad, with scores of suicide attempts and three inmates killing themselves last year. Even US officials are shocked.... FBI documents revealed that an inmate's head had been wrapped in tape for quoting from the Qur'an. Another was humiliated for his religious beliefs and 'baptized' by a soldier posing as a Catholic priest. The documents show FBI agents saw 26 instances of abuse in their time at Guant a1namo. The FBI is highly skeptical about alleged confessions gained by its military colleagues."

    The interrogation techniques originally employed at Guant a1namo were later implemented in Iraq itself at Abu Ghraib. According to The New Yorker, "In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib ... was one of the world's most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions." We are all too familiar with the now infamous Abu Ghraib photographs that document the human rights abuses perpetrated on Iraqis by the US Army and by other American agencies and operatives. All the US did was to replace Saddam's torturers with US torturers, all in the name of American democracy. But torture by any entity is still torture. As a rose by any other name....

    In a Time magazine interview on January 27, 2005, President Bush stated, "torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture." I guess no one told him about Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer who was kidnapped by US officials at Kennedy Airport in New York on September 26, 2002, sent to Syria for months and tortured. Eventually, he was released on October 5, 2003, without being charged with any crimes. Again, all of this is done in the name of American democracy.

    How does kidnapping and torturing people in the name of democracy make us more democratic? How does violating people's most sacred beliefs - their religion - in the name of "The War on Terror" endear them to you and your cause? How does this make us safe?

    Vice President Cheney has said repeatedly, "To prevail in this fight, we must understand the nature of the enemy.... This enemy has no regard for the rules of warfare, and is unconstrained by any standard of decency or morality.... They seek to impose a dictatorship of fear, under which every man, woman, and child lives in total obedience to a narrow, hateful ideology. This ideology rejects tolerance, denies freedom of conscience.... Such beliefs can be imposed only through force and intimidation, so those who refuse to bow to the tyrants will be brutalized or killed ... and no person or group is exempt." This sounds more like self-criticism than the condemnation of others.

    This administration has violated its own constitution and the Geneva Conventions. It has invaded a sovereign country, overseen the hanging of its president, instilled fear in the hearts and minds of its own people through lies and misinformation, and demonized an entire ethnic group of people and their religion. How do we ever expect to win in the court of international public opinion and win over the hearts and minds of those who disagree with US action? Are we not engaged in the very actions and activities, both nationally and internationally, that will result in our demise? Based upon the illegal and immoral actions of the current Bush administration, I think Pogo the possum was correct in 1971 when he said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

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    Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III is the producer/host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "On With Leon" on XM Satellite Radio Channel 169; producer/host of the television program "Inside the Issues With Wilmer Leon" and a teaching associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, DC. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. (c) 2007 InfoWave Communications, LLC.