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The Ugly Mutation of American Conservatism
...In the 1990’s, most conservative were (correctly) outraged at the numerous incidents of government bullying and abuse that seemed to be occurring with increasing frequency. I was appalled by the deaths at Ruby Ridge. I was outraged by the military-style assault at Waco. I was sickened by Hillary’s FBI file scandal and her frequent use of sleazy tactics against her political enemies. I prayed for a Republican victory to restore respect for individual liberty and limited government.

Again, things haven’t exactly worked out the way I’d expected.

We now have a government that actively engages in the systematic use of torture against its enemies. We have an administration that advocates the lifetime detention of suspected terrorists without trial…even when the state lacks conclusive evidence that they are, in fact, terrorists. The government even denies that it must inform anyone that they are holding a particular suspect. People can now just "disappear" in America, with no recourse to lawyers or judges. We have new laws that allow government agents to engage in searches and seizures without warrants. We have seen the creation of a secret gulag around the globe in which detainees are held without due process of any sort. There have been numerous stories appearing which claim American security forces have "wink and nod" agreements with foreign secret police agencies in which various abusive tactics are essentially "out-sourced" to nations which have no constitutional restraints on the treatment of prisoners. We have a government that has written numerous briefs on the "out-dated" nature of the Geneva Conventions.

Many conservatives have rationalized these facts by claiming that these extraordinary measures will only be used against terrorists.

That is bunk. The entire history of government teaches us that it always attempts to accumulate power and always tries to undermine limitations on its authority.

As night follows day, these new powers granted to law enforcement agencies under the various anti-terrorism laws will be used against American citizens in situations with no connection to terrorism. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, a story broke in which a man in New Jersey was arrested for shining a laser at airplane cockpits. He is being charged under anti-terrorism laws, even though the government admits that his actions had no connection to terrorism and that he is not a terrorist.

I fully expect that this trend will eventually include the torture of American citizens...

...One of the traditional bedrock beliefs of conservatism has been a respect and admiration for the US Military. Throughout my days as a young conservative, I frequently heard accusations hurled at liberals that they were "anti-military," usually in concert with stories of the mistreatment of soldiers returning from Vietnam.

But how well have things been going for servicemen since the advent of conservative control of the presidency and congress?

From my perspective, things have not gone well at all. This administration launched vitriolic attacks against retired military officers who questioned the decision to invade Iraq. The neocons also attacked individuals in the military and government who questioned their tactics for prosecuting the war. Some were even sacked for suggesting that the predictions of a "cake walk" were inaccurate and that we would need more soldiers than the existing plans predicted.

Does this constitute respect?

Clearly, the administration did not have enough soldiers to occupy Iraq after the fall of Saddam’s government. Plans were not made to stabilize the country in the immediate aftermath of the war. The administration also refused to recognize that the burgeoning insurgency even existed until it was too large to contain.

As a result of these failures, our military is now buckling under numerous stresses. Just last week, the Lt. General in command of the Army Reserve declared that the Reserve force is now "broken" and is unable to complete its mission. Reservists and National Guardsmen are being sent back to Iraq for their 2nd or 3rd tours of duty, and their active duty responsibilities are being continually increased. The administration is engaged in a back-door draft by issuing "stop-loss" policies which prevent soldiers from returning to civilian life after completing their agreed time of service. The manpower shortage is so bad that the Pentagon is considering collocating women into front-line combat units for the first time in our history, thus eliminating a long-standing policy of keeping women out of direct ground combat.

Even worse is the woeful lack of proper equipment available for our soldiers in Iraq. Stories abound of families who are forced to purchase vests for their loved ones because of the lack of body armor available for front line troops. Soldiers are even scrounging through dumps in Kuwait trying to find armor fragments to weld onto their unprotected Humvees before making the trip into Iraq.

Adding insult to injury, we were also forced to endure Donald Rumsfeld’s "pithy" reply to these accusations ("You go to war with the army you have").

Does any of this constitute respect for the military?

Not in my book. ...