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Cowardice in Congress Again

Aug 06 2007

Cowardice in Congress Again

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Op_ed

By MWC NEWS

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Cowardice in Congress Again
By Jacob Hornberger

The cowardly Democrats in Congress have done it again: Succumbing to fears that President Bush will accuse them of being soft on terrorism, they have enacted a law that expands President Bush’s wiretapping powers. You’ll recall that the same reason (together with fear of being accused of being unpatriotic) motivated them to approve the USA Patriot Act and, before that, the unconstitutional delegation of the power to declare war on Iraq.

Of course, that doesn’t make the Republican members of Congress any better. Ever since 9/11, they’ve been a bigger rubberstamp for whatever the president wants than even Saddam Hussein’s congress was for him.

This is what advocates of the U.S. government’s pro-empire, pro-intervention foreign policy must confront even if they don’t like confronting it: that such a foreign policy inevitably and inexorably generates ever-increasing infringements on the liberty of the American people and that such infringements are irreconcilable with a free (i.e., libertarian) society.

"Of course, that doesn’t make the Republican members of Congress any better. Ever since 9/11, they’ve been a bigger rubberstamp for whatever the president wants than even Saddam Hussein’s congress was for him."

While it was once comforting for pro-interventionists to believe that U.S. foreign policy only impacted foreigners, reality has now set in, primarily because foreigners decided to retaliate. Once the retaliation took place — in the form of terrorist attacks on the WTC in 1993, on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, on the USS Cole, and on 9/11 — U.S. officials seized on those retaliations to declare their “war on terrorism,” which has involved cancellation of the centuries-old right of habeas corpus, the “enemy combatant” doctrine, spying on Americans, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, denial of due process and trial by jury, torture and sex abuse, Gitmo, kidnapping and rendition, and, now, expanded wiretap powers.

Life and circumstances have placed Americans who cherish a free society, especially libertarians, in a position of having to make a choice that can no longer be avoided. Do we want a pro-empire, pro-intervention foreign policy along with the unfree society at home that such a policy inexorably brings or do we instead want a limited-government, nonintervention foreign policy along with the free, peaceful, prosperous, and harmonious society that comes with it?

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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