War as the ultimate justifier
Liberal Democracy, War on Terror
It is common knowledge that government use the fear to promote problematic regulations. It is easier to limits one’s freedom when warning about the “enemy in the gates”. It is much easier to pass laws such as the Patriot Act, or to suspend the Habeas Corpus when the government argue that these are necessary measure to prevent terror attacks. But since it is such an efficient tool to pass legislation it is being used to pass any kind of legislation:
The U.S. Justice Department seems to believe that if you tell a big enough lie, people will listen. Here’s the latest: Attorney General Michael Mukasey claims that terrorists sell pirated software as a way to finance their operations, without presenting a shred of evidence for his case. He’s doing it to push through a controversial piece of legislation that’s bad for you.
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So why is Mukasey trying to convince people there’s a link between software piracy and terrorism, even though one doesn’t exist? To force Congress to pass controversial intellectual property (IP) legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more.
This yet another, small, example why War is the Health of the State
Tags: Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, The Patriot Act, War is the Health of the State, War on TerrorRelated posts
Rogel @ April 7, 2008