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samboct -> RE: The Insanity of Bush Hatred (11/15/2007 6:34:50 PM)
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Some further musings
Perhaps one of the most shameful actions in our history was the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII and their deportation to concentration camps. These citizens were not accorded due process- with the justification of racism and fear, these people lost their homes, their freedom, their businesses and some lost their lives. I suspect that many of the same justifications are now being trotted out to deprive Muslims of their freedoms and due processes. What is disheartening here is that we have refused to learn from our mistakes- that fearmongering has lead to torture, false imprisonment, and murder. We have done this by demonizing the Muslims of the world- by claiming that there is some monstrous conspiracy where these people intend to do us physical and economic harm- but they have no weapons of mass destruction- no major armies, navies, or air forces of any significance in comparison to our own. We had as little evidence to convict massive numbers of Japanese Americans of treasonous activities- and accomplished nothing in thwarting the goals of the Japanese war machine, but injured our own war effort by the waste of resources imprisoning these people, undermining our moral underpinning in the war, and reducing our economic output.
As a suggestion- perhaps the first step in the healing process is an acknowledgement that our treatment of the Muslims of the world has helped recruit terrorists, not stop them, that our abandonment of our principles has left us with no moral or ethical justification for our actions. So if the neocons stop demonizing liberals and Muslims, perhaps we can begin debating politely again. Are there Muslim terrorists- yes, obviously. But we cannot catch those responsible for terrorist actions by our racist/religious bigotry and the absurd claim that US citizens of the Muslim religion are not entitled to the same protections under the Constitution as everyone else.
Sam
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