Only the Rights We Can Defend

I disagree that there are not well organized conspiracies going on, but do agree that, in the end, we (the people) are allowing it to persist.
Now you only have to witness the bumbling efforts of this administration to manage the war, Katrina etc. etc. to understand that even well organized conspiracies are the product of fallible men.

The people and policies that created 911, and led us into this state of never ending war, 'knew' what they were doing.
You don't get fifty years of bad foreign policy by chance.
It is not an unconnected series of events from the Muslim holocaust in Bosnia and Serbia, to the brutalization of the Palestinian people, the apathy at genocide in Africa, etc. etc. these are events connected by a 'coherent' foreign policy, that has consistently failed to uphold human rights and the most basic principles of our own constitution. Wars are not fought for ideas, they are fought for money and power.
The ideas, the rhetoric just serves to aid those in power carry out their wars with 'public' support.

While you may reject the popular so called 'conspiracy theories' as do I, the real problem is that there is too much we don't know. Too much hidden and secret, too much spin, and very little appetite on the part of the public and the media (the fourth estate) to get to the bottom of things.

I would even hazard a guess that many governments are actively behind some of the most radical conspiracy theories, as they serve to 'muddy the waters' and convince intelligent people that the effort to get 'to the bottom of things' is not worthwhile.

My immediate point was that the Bush administration has been told by the Supreme court it's solutions and policies are illegal, the Justice department and even by their own admission, they feel unrestrained by any laws. That situation is intolerable, even in the midst of war.
There must be some accountability, it is our only way of preserving the rights we hold dear.

There is a quote from Jack McCoy of Law and Order fame in front of the Supreme Court in one episode, McCoy says that man has "only the rights he can defend". If we fail to defend those rights we no longer have them. They are not worth the paper they were written on. The rule of law is a fiction if it is not applied.

Would pursuing these criminals and exposing our own governments 'warts' solve the problems of radical and violent religious fundamentalism, no, eduction is the only thing that can save us from the ravages of death and despair that would be foisted upon us by Evangelical Christians , Zionist Jews and Radical Muslims, but it would lay the groundwork for a nation that can address those problems in a forthright way.

Bush Lied, Blair lied, over 90 thousand American soldiers dead or wounded, trillions spent and counting, many millions of Iraqis dead, wounded or displaced. The corruption and mayhem that is Iraq today a direct consequence of those lies. Taxi to the Darkside is about the US campaign of torture, but perhaps more importantly how our ignorance and complacency contributes to the environment where this kind of thing can happen.

Man has only the rights he can defend.

MTMIND
Michael Trachtenberg