[CORed]

I find it truly frightening how many people are buying into the notion that because a few nuts hijacked some planes and flew them into buildings a few years ago, that any dissent or criticism is now somehow treasonous.

Point number one: We are not legally at war. The United states has not declared war since 1941. That war ended in 1945. We have been involved in several military operations since then, some authorized by Congress (Vietnam (sort of), Gulf war, the current Iran fiasco), some not (Korea, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo to name some). The authorization to use military force in Iraq was not a formal declaration of war. The "war on terror" is not legally a war. Also, the notion that a state of war suspends constitutional liberties is IMO, an erroneous and dangerous one. Yes, I know there is precedent. Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt all took actins that were, IMO clearly uncontitutional in wartime. This doesn't make it right, and it's doubtful that those actions were necessary to win the wars or that they substantially contributed to our eventual victory.

There will always be people with a grievance against the U.S. (reasonable or otherwise) who think that their grievance entiltes them to set off bombs, fly planes into buildings, release poisons or pathogens, or otherwise atack our civillian popultation. Some of them will almost certaionly succeed again some day. Should we make every reasonable effort to identify and arrest or kill such people? Absolutely. Should we take military action against countries that harbor or aid terrorists who attack us, or plan on doing so? Again, absolutely. Should we invade countries that had nothing to do with terrorist attacks on us (Iraq), while ignoring countries that aided the terrorists (Saudi Arabia) and try to force "freedom" on those countries while doing everything possible to eliminate it in our country? Hell no. Somewhere between the head-in-the-sand pre-9/11 state of oblivious denial, and the current state of rampant paranoia and creeping Fascism, there is a rational policy toward terrorists. I sincerely hope the next President, whoever he may be, can find it. This of course assumes that Bush does not establish himself as dictator for life and cancel the next presidential election.

The current administrations over-reaction to 9/11 is now a much more serious threat to the survival of America as we used to know it than anytihing Al Queda is capable of doing.