Homeland Insecurity

After the murders of Sept. 11, 2001 ( a day that will, too, live in infamy.), and after what seemed to be very sincere pronouncements, by the President, of outrage and promises that he'll use all the power of his office to capture or kill those responsible, the federal government slouched down to its normal business-as-usual, don't rock the boat mentality.

Certainly, attempts were made to bring allies to our side (with more success than the ever-hypercritical Democrats will ever admit), the military was deployed to Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden was thought to be headquartered. Bin Laden wasn't found, but as usual, we'll leave Afghanistan better off than we found it (less a few thousand lives). For reasons yet (in my opinion) to be revealed, we next attacked Iraq.

There are plusses and minuses to the military attacks upon the Middle East. Certainly, we had to go after the evil bastards that did this thing. Equally certainly, we pulled our punches and attempted to wage a "politically correct" war, feeding those we're fighting and going out of our way to avoid inflicting and more collateral damage than "necessary." Had we gone in with the full resolve we'd used in WWII, we might be done by now.

But what this message is about isn't our war in the Middle East. It's about the federal government's war on Americans. Immediately upon the settlement of some of the dust from the collapse of the towers, calls went out to "Tighten Security!" And what did that come to mean? Taking the tools illegally brought to bear against Americans accused of using drugs, and applying them to all Americans(!!). It gets worse: in the interest of political correctness, they applied these unConstitutional tools and techniques mainly on Americans who are not of the muslim persuasion(!?). Li'l o'ladies are groped and strip searched, their knitting needles confiscated, while young, middle-eastern men with baggy coats are let through with a nod.

Airline security is the responsibility of the airlines, not the federal government. Local police have a role in it, but not the federal government. Read the Constitution. Tell me where it says that the federal government is authorized (by We the People) to police, patrol and guard private institutions within the country's borders. While you're at it, read the First, Second....hell, read all the Amendments. If you don't see the outrage being perpetrated upon We the People by the federal government, then government schools have indeed done their job well.

What's the first thing government does when faced with a crisis? Create a new department. Homeland Security. Sounds ever so nice. Security in the homeland. The Constitution suggests--no, mandates--that it's the job of the military to protect the country from foreign invaders. It's because of these new programs with new names that distract the military from its job that they're ineffective when a threat does appear. Many departments in many agencies--the easier to have someone to blame when the job doesn't get done.

We have colored flags to tell us how severe is the current danger. That's stylish. Then, they tell us not to be alarmed. Go about your business as if all is well.

The first thing the President should have done is written an executive order legalizing the carry and use of firearms and other weapons by those capable of handling them. The feds could pave the way legally for classes in citizen's arrests to be set up for those wishing to become involved. Individuals could thus be expected to take control of their property and their businesses and see to it that nothing untoward happens thereon. Privatizing more of America's land would be a good idea, too. Individuals take better care of their property than do government employees.

He should remove sactions against oil drilling and, as our domestic supplies improve, we should taper off our purchases of oil from middle-eastern dictatorships. We should begin dealing with foreign sellers of goods and services on a value-for-value basis, with no government involvement.

In their rush to complete the erection of the perfect police state, the Administration has pushed us in the opposite direction, taking more freedom from the individual and gathering more power into the hands of the state. What the President does not know, or chooses to ignore, is that by concentrating power in the hands of few, he places the country in greater danger. He takes millions of perfectly good "soldiers" out of the battle by disarming them and dumbing them down.

So much for the President's interest in the welfare of the country. By concentrating power around himself, he weakens it.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California