America's "Security" Obsession Out of Control

"National security" has long since become a euphemism for all sorts of excesses by a government. It has similar connotations than the classic "we're from the government, and we're here to help," albeit grimmer and more sinister. As experiences under the George W. Bush Administration demonstrated, the United States Federal Government can leverage a 'need' for 'increased security' into, in no particular order: two military invasions of sovereign nations; unknown numbers of illegal prisons worldwide; torture; and so on, and so forth.

To make things clear, we do not have a copy of Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World to wave around every time a new surveillance program or technology becomes available. We also do not block the street when Google Earth photography vans are approaching. We do, however, believe that there is a distinct limit to how security-conscious a Government can become, until it starts turning into something much darker.

It is this article from Associated Press that made us think about this topic long and hard. We strongly recommend that you read that article well, Dear Reader; read it very, very well. The implications of what it represents are most dire.

If indeed the Government can continue to get away with harassing, illegally imprisoning, and illegally exporting American Citizens, then the situation in the United States will be impossibly grim. Realistically, if the Government is allowed by the judicial system to continue export law-abiding citizens (even Army soldiers!), then there is no limit to who can be treated in this manner.

In the case of the examples given by the AP article, those persons of Hispanic parentage are automatically 'Mexican,' according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the racism of this act alone should be inflammatory to any Citizen. However, that is not necessarily the worst reading of the situation.

History shows that when a society is under severe economic stress, it typically searches for a scapegoat. These unfortunates are easily visually identifiable, and suffer very harsh treatment, to say the least. The United States is indeed following that well-worn path to "finding someone to blame." In this case, it appears to be that Hispanic-appearing persons are to blame, and citizenship be damned.

There is a point in the favour of the United States: a simple deportation is more humane than a gulag, or summary execution. However, we fear that, as the 2007 Depression deepens, the number of incidents, and the violence, of these actions may indeed increase. Carried to the inevitable extreme, any Citizen can be singled out by I.C.E., harassed into signing a document (in which the Citizen agrees to be exported from the U.S. as an illegal immigrant), and then dumped on a plane to wherever I.C.E. feels the Citizen 'belongs.'

We wonder if, someday, I.C.E. won't bother with the plane anymore...