The Ultimate Sin

The opening paragraph in Glenn Greenwald's post two days ago is exactly what I've been asking myself about this and many other issues for years (the US torturing of individuals, detaining without any due process whatsoever, US-sanctioned assassination, not-at-Ground-Zero mosque, etc.). I am amazed to this day how this whole debacle has been framed into "issues." We shouldn't even be having discussions about these. These concepts are so egregious as to not warrant a pro-con conversation:

During the Bush-era torture debates, I was never able to get past my initial incredulity that we were even having a "debate" over whether the President has the authority to torture people. Andrew Sullivan has responded to some of the questions I posed about his defense of Obama's assassination program, and I realize now that throughout this whole assassination debate, specific legal and factual issues aside, my overarching reaction is quite similar: I actually can't believe that there is even a "debate" over whether an American President -- without a shred of due process or oversight -- has the power to compile hit lists of American citizens whom he orders the CIA to kill far away from any battlefield. The notion that the President has such an unconstrained, unchecked power is such a blatant distortion of everything our political system is supposed to be -- such a pure embodiment of the very definition of tyrannical power -- that, no matter how many times I see it, it's still hard for me to believe there are people willing to expressly defend it.

This is the deal breaker for me regarding President Obama. I will never support an individual who has no problem in authorizing the killing of another human being without any kind of due process, no matter what else he might accomplish. That is so against the grain of what I believe our country should represent. A living, breathing, totally unique human being possibly being snuffed out forever on one person's say-so. That is the ultimate sin.

As Mr. Greenwald says, "The notion that the President has such an unconstrained, unchecked power is such a blatant distortion of everything our political system is supposed to be..."

We're now on the slippery slope. Where will we go from here?

A "tiny minority of people"

Did anybody besides me catch President Obama's comment at the end of his press conference Friday afternoon? To wit:

And so from a national security interest, we want to be clear about who the enemy is here. It’s a handful, a tiny minority of people who are engaging in horrific acts, and have killed Muslims more than anybody else.

Get that? The "enemy" is "a tiny minority of people" who are engaging in horrific acts. I've maintained from day one that the 9/11 attack should have been treated as a criminal conspiracy and having law enforcement, such as Interpol, pursue these criminals, who according to our President is a "tiny minority of people."

Instead, President Bush used the act of a "tiny minority of people" to declare an unending "War on Terror" and get thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of middle easterners killed with millions more displaced. President Obama continues the same prosecution. Over a "tiny minority of people."

I am surprised that no one has picked up on this comment. Maybe they are choosing to ignore it, so let me put it a slightly different way.

In addition to causing hundreds of thousands of American and middle easterners' deaths, we have spent over three trillion dollars, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. All over a "tiny minority of people."

The political elite have been sowing massive amounts of fear into the very souls of the American population to perpetuate the massive war effort, maintain the profits of the military industrial complex and keep America "safe" from these terrifying, evil "tiny minority of people." They who will creep into our bedrooms and slit our throats at any moment if we don't watch out!

A "tiny minority of people" threaten our "national security," and the United States as we know it will be taken down forever by a "handful" of these pseudo-masterminds if we don't throw three trillion dollars and over 5,000 American lives at them. And we're continuing this blasphemy to this day and beyond - A "Forever War"...

Since the inception of the United States there have been a "tiny minority of people" who have plotted against it. Same as any other country in the world having a "tiny minority of people" plot against them.

Doesn't anybody get what's going on?