Patriotism?

Or just a gross abuse against a vein of democracy? The USA's Patriot Act will hopefully become history when the White House hopefully has a new boss later this year, so in the hope that it will, local governments are resisting.

Other stuff: the Taguba Report on abuse of Iraqi detainess inside Abu Ghraib Prison. The Law of Land Warfare. The Geneva Conventions.

Private contractors, according to the Toguba report, gave orders to US soldiers to torture prisoners. Their presence in Iraq is a result of the Bush military strategy of invading with a relatively light force. The gap has been filled by private contractors, who are not subject to Iraqi law or the US military code of justice. Now, there are an estimated 20,000 of them on the ground in Iraq, a larger force than the British army.

It is not surprising that recent events in Iraq centre on these contractors: the four killed in Falluja, and Abu Ghraib's interrogators. Under the Bush legal doctrine, we create a system beyond law to defend the rule of law against terrorism; we defend democracy by inhibiting democracy. Law is there to constrain "evildoers". Who doubts our love of freedom? - Sidney Blumenthal

The thing is, the monolith underpinning all this crap is the notion that 9-11 was the start of a continued and barbaric series of threats against America and the entire world. There's no proof of that at all, though! "But there have been no attacks in America since 9-11." Yeah, but there were no attacks in America in the years and years and years before 9-11... so you've proved what exactly? Bush steps into the White House, 9-11 happens, Bush clicks his fingers, Bush gets all the legislation he ever wanted, and a lot more than anyone would ever need. And they call that the world's greatest democracy.