Secret Military Trials

This morning, as I was going to work, I heard on the radio that Bush wants to hold secret military trials for any terrorists that are caught. This sent a chill down my spine as the realization hit me that this is another brick in the road to fascism that our government seems to be building.

Back when I was in the military, I heard arguments from the lifers that it took an organization like the military to defend freedom and democracy. They tried to convince me that democracy was incapable of defending itself. I didn't buy it then and I certainly don't buy it now.

Since the September 11th attacks, we are being told that we must sacrifice our rights, our freedom and our democracy to defeat terrorism and protect the freedoms and democracy we just lost. Now Bush is calling for secret military trials, in the country that proclaims itself to be the champion of freedom and democracy. Military trials have been criticized in other countries, like in Peru when New York journalist and political activist Lori Berenson was arrested, tried and convicted by a secret military tribunal with hooded judges, as an obstacle to democracy. Yet, because of September 11th, we are now supposed to agree that they are necessary in this country to protect us from suspected terrorists. Of course we know that our leaders would never abuse the authority they are given-like running an illegal war in Nicaragua out of the basement of the White House-so we can all sleep well at night knowing that justice will be served. Far from consoling me, this raises a very important question: If the freedom and democracy our country espouses is too weak to defend itself, then is it the kind of freedom and democracy we really want?

This report also started me wondering if those putting forward the notion that the U.S. government was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon don't actually have something valid to say. After all if Bin Laden is really behind the attacks, why would Bush and company need to hide his trial behind secret doors and involve the military? Would not the evidence against him stand up in the light of open court? Is not the judicial system of this country capable of rendering justice? Any smoke-screen of national security rings hollow in light of the attacks, since the government failed to keep the people who died in the attacks secure, how can they argue that keeping the evidence against Bin Laden and the terrorists from us will keep us any more secure? On top of this is the critical question of who defines what a "terrorist" is. Bush is already on record saying that even loyal opposition to his war puts one in the camp of the terrorists. How can anyone feel safe engaging in the debates and discussions that are the hallmarks of democracy, let alone outright opposing the government?

No, it seems that however the attacks came about, the government is whipping the reaction of the people of this country into a blind hysteria as a means of covering an escalation in the attacks on civil liberties it has been trying to carry out for some time now. Over the past decades we have seen a steady decline in our rights and freedoms, as under the cover of the war on drugs and the war on illegal immigrants, this country is being turned into a police state. Secret military trials are definitely an escalation.

This is yet another reason why this so-called "war on terrorism" should be opposed as well as the accompanying attacks on civil liberties.

And Justice For All!