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"Take the fight to the enemy", said President Bush in 2003. Strong words. But Americans are finding out fast that what she does abroad will eventually come home to roost. While we're all tucked away in our 21st Century lives, we don't seem to care too much about far off places and the people who live there, so long as it doesn't inconvenience our daily lives. "They hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for our way of life" adds Bush, referring the apparent terrorists attackers of 911. At the time, our President got a lot of mileage out of this statement- it was one of the foundations on which he built America's open-ended campaign, the 'War on Terror'. But it's Janis Joplin who had it right on the money... 'freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose'...

Now it seems that the War on Terror has truly arrived on America's home turf, but I'm not referring to foreign terrorist attacking Americans. No, we are talking about our own government and law enforcement agencies attacking the basic rights of its own American citizens. Yes, we are talking about two sets of rules: one for the Executive Branch of our government and one for its citizens. The people of the US are currently fighting to keep their property, their freedoms of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to wear a T-shirt with a political slogan, and freedom from state-run torture on US lands. Think about it. The war against our Human Rights, against fair Habeas Corpus, against our 1st and 4th Amendments... against the US Constitution. Many will now argue that abroad, we have sufficiently destroyed Iraq, Afghanistan to the point where there can be no victory there. Others will argue that there was never any real victory to be won there, only victory for companies like Halliburton, Kellog and Blackwater Security. We unwittingly ushered in an era of Big Government, but will it turn into Bathist-like state control and Taliban-like religious fundamentalism?

Isn't it ironic, that we've lost many of our celebrated 'freedoms' since 2001? Who would've figured this would happen in the 21st century? If we can't work these basic issues out at home, then really, what business do we have talking about it to the rest of the world?

What is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan is only a symptom of a deeper malaise. Our Executive Branch, our government, our security agencies... they are not above the US Constitution- which is and always will be the law of the land, so long as the country is still a Free Constitutional Republic. If the American people do not protect it, they will eventually lose it.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Henningsen.
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