When Every President is a War President

Photo Credit: nymag.com

Glenn Greenwald was a constitutional law and civil rights litigator, and now writes for Salon. If you are a regular to this site, you’re familiar with my praises of Greenwald. He has become a more and more substantial and reasoned voice fighting for the constitution, accountability and transparency in this great nation, no matter which party has a man in the White House. He has just written a piece that rises to the level of perception-altering. It’s a cold splash of water in the face, at a time when this country really needs one.

Here are some excerpts:

In any event, the U.S. is, more or less, a nation permanently at war.  One can debate whether all or some of our wars are good or not, but what can’t be debated is that we fight wars far, far more than any other country — basically, continuously…

The decree that a President is a special kind of leader — a “War President” — is so pernicious because that becomes the rationale for justifying whatever he wants to do…

It doesn’t matter how often the Government’s accusations about detainees in Guantanamo and elsewhere are proven to be lies.  It’s just mindlessly accepted that whoever the President calls a “Terrorist” is one, and that anyone we are imprisoning with no trial must be deeply guilty of being both Evil and Dangerous…

This is what being a “nation at war” and viewing the President as a “War President” — first and foremost the ”Commander-in-Chief” — does to a country.  Fear predominates everything.  No government power needs to be limited.  Blind faith is placed in presidential judgments, the assessments of the War President go unquestioned.  Being in the military means following orders, so when all citizens start viewing the President in military terms — he’s “our” Commander-in-Chief — that mentality of obedience is the natural by-product.

Politics and political discussions would be good theater- a show, and ultimately meaningless-  if policy didn’t have great and often tragic effects on the course of human history. I hope you’ll read the entire, brief article. Click here  for it, and be sure to read the update at the bottom- it’s a doozy. Comments of all kinds are encouraged.