As a reminder- Lincoln suspended habeas. We all survived that. :) This isn't good- but it's far from perminent. We have a long ways to go before it makes it that far.
Lincoln suspended habeas, and I think Wilson did as well (or came pretty close). OTOH, those were during fairly well-defined wars, with enemies that one could expect to come to terms with at some point, ending the war (in victory or defeat). Our current "war" is against smoke and shadows, against no single enemy who can ever be defeated or treated with.
I totally agree. Wilson never did- but if you look at the domestic history of the US during WWI, the suspension of civil liberties is a heck of a good bit scarrier. Check out John Berry's history of the 1918 flu epidemic.
The enemy is less clearly defined, and that's honestly why this isn't going to stand the test long term. McCain is a strong candidate for president and there's no way he leaves this intact if he's elected. Not after what he went through in Vietnam. The thing about the wording in this bill is that it's still overly vauge and SHOULD trigger even a conservative court to tilt to dump it. It will take about 2 years to work through- coincidentally that would hit the next presidential election.
I'll note that the ammendment to the bill (the terrorism bits) actually just missed getting tossed back to committee. The hang up on it was the other provisions NEEDED to get passed before congress went out of session.
Blair says he's leaving in the summer- he does and we have a WORLD of hurt in terms of trying to keep the current situation in place. Contrary to the opinion of elected leaders we can't do this alone.
Our current enemy is one we are ignoring. Hello? Where's Bin Laden again? Iraq? Noooooooooo. But, like it or not- we just pull out...we got an even bigger mess. Rock, meet hard place.
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Not that this is good in the short term. :/
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The enemy is less clearly defined, and that's honestly why this isn't going to stand the test long term. McCain is a strong candidate for president and there's no way he leaves this intact if he's elected. Not after what he went through in Vietnam. The thing about the wording in this bill is that it's still overly vauge and SHOULD trigger even a conservative court to tilt to dump it. It will take about 2 years to work through- coincidentally that would hit the next presidential election.
I'll note that the ammendment to the bill (the terrorism bits) actually just missed getting tossed back to committee. The hang up on it was the other provisions NEEDED to get passed before congress went out of session.
Blair says he's leaving in the summer- he does and we have a WORLD of hurt in terms of trying to keep the current situation in place. Contrary to the opinion of elected leaders we can't do this alone.
Our current enemy is one we are ignoring. Hello? Where's Bin Laden again? Iraq? Noooooooooo. But, like it or not- we just pull out...we got an even bigger mess. Rock, meet hard place.
I'm moving to Fiji...
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