Lawfully Speaking, Vol. III, Issue No. 6
A Periodic Internet Political Column
Written by William H. Huff
Flag sales are up. So are flag thefts. Blind trust for government officials is climbing higher every day. America is at 'War!' There are flags waving everywhere. Even the local drinking hole and every other business are waving flags and putting up signs that proudly proclaim: "God Bless America! Does anyone think it strange that many of those flags being waved to celebrate the latest American Undeclared 'War' are made in China!? Remember the place we used to call RED China? Yes! That's the one!
If God is to bless America when she makes war without lawful cause; and without the Constitutionally required Declaration by the Peoples' Representatives and Senators, we will have no choice but to believe the invocation of the motto "God Bless America" requires not one, but all three words, to be redefined for the 'limited purposes' of this 'war.'
My Country Righteous or Wrong
It's not the God of the Bible they are talking about as far as I can tell. His kind of justice could never support war for the sake of domination or commercial enterprise. This used to be called war for plunder. It has its historical precedents in the traditions of those gentle folks we formerly called Barbarians or Pirates. Until we see the evidence, we have to assume some other nefarious agenda is afoot. It has most often been the case in the past. If you doubt it read "WAR IS A RACKET" by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC - a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who told us the truth about war. Even war for revenge is something quite distasteful when a nation is betraying its own heritage. Might does not make right! At least it didn't make right when it was being used against us by the British [now our new partners in enforcing global governance]. After we have meddled in the internal affairs of other nations for many decades there must be a price to pay one way or another. This constitutes a deliberate departure from the mandates of our Providential founding. The Founders and Framers consistently taught that their new path was a way to avoid being constantly embroiled in wars as had been the experience of all the European nations up to that point. The formula is simple: Don't Meddle! Enjoy Free Commerce with all nations and Entangling Alliances with none! Make war only for defence [please don't read this as naiveté on my part. I have read General Butler's "War is a Racket" and Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" and I am well aware that there is no such thing as a righteous reason for the President to circumvent the powers of Congress to Declare a Lawful War. Osama Bin Laden is not a sovereign country. If he did what is alleged he is a criminal that must be tried in a court of law. The damage that is being done to the principles of national sovereignty while using Osama as an excuse would never have been countenanced by the Founding Fathers. We have also not allowed any time for even the semblance of due process to take place. The nations involved in this conflict have been 'hustled' into it before any due process arguments could be presented. Anyone who even questions the rectitude of their actions, it would seem, might reasonably expect to become the next target of 'coalition' bombing].
America, as well as every other sovereign nation, has an unquestioned right to defend herself - but the American People have a superior right and obligation under our form of government to call our servants into account before the fact! I want to see the evidence before we get involved in another 'war' for whatever 'stated' cause. We should have learned our lesson from history. Washington and Jefferson were right to exhort us to avoid entangling alliances with foreign powers. How much more should we dread the awful consequences of perverting the use of our military for the purposes of plundering other nations for the sake of supra-national corporations? I tell you, if you can't grasp what I am talking about here you need to study the founding documents until you do. Our national survival depends on it. Nations are destroyed from within - not without! The ultimate Terror we need to worry about will come as a result of our trusting too much in the political prostitutes in Washington. We could never have been brought down from without if we had maintained our national virtue intact.
It's certainly not the kind of blessing I pray for.
I want an America that would be recognized by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - one that stays out of other peoples' political affairs and deals with all nations with respect for their sovereignty and their natural rights from God. Sadly, most Americans are so ignorant of the Constitution that they could be living in an American Theme Park and never notice. Their notion of America would not be recognized by the Founders of this nation or the Framers of our Constitution. The blessing I pray for is the swift return of the rule of law within these United States.
It's not the kind of America I want to live in when we all know this intrigue is being conducted through back-room deals where the global military industrial complex and the Banksters will use every excuse to line their pockets with blood money. Banks love war too! The people are in denial or ignorance. It cannot be doubted. Ignorant, lazy, wicked people have always ended up as either slaves or cannon fodder - if not tyrants or dupes themselves.
Let's remember that even the Congress has not been trusted with the 'evidence' that is allegedly being used to perpetrate this 'war.' Of course a select committee of the Congress, sworn to secrecy, could be used as a smokescreen to generate a little more public confidence. I'm sure some of the Presidents PR folks are watching to see if its 'needed.' Maybe he needs some help from Madison Avenue as well.
Our national prayers may have become provocations rather than invocations to God without most of us noticing.
Where is the Constitutional justification for this foreign adventure or Anti-Jihad if you will? Not that it would make any difference in the results or in future retribution. America is a already a laughing stock for the 'Monica Missiles' that were hurled at a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory. To my knowledge no evidence for that little waste of perfectly good cruise missiles has turned up yet. Surprise, Surprise! In response to the allegation that the factory was manufacturing nerve gas, a high government official in Sudan said, "How can we believe that they have taken the soil from here? They can take it from anywhere in the world and say that this is the sand taken from the factory in Shifa..." Did the United States government apply any consistent forensics or rules of evidence, or were they just shooting off some fireworks to cover Clinton's assets? Do we dare impose standards of evidence on other citizens and nations that we could never accept within our own country? How long will it be until 'what goes around - comes around?'
It would appear many of our fellow citizens have subconsciously bought into the notion that America will always be Right simply because she will always have the military might to dominate the rest of the world. Having apparently adopted a professional sports fan model for most of their thinking processes they are probably misapplying the Vince Lombardi adage: "Winning isn't everything - Winning is the only thing," to that compartment in their brain that was formerly used for discerning right from wrong. If you can compartmentalize your brain so that wars and sports are moral equivalents, I suppose you will have no problem with the country making war on any country for any reason, at any time, since "Winning is the Only Thing."
As you know, the Pledge of Allegiance contains the familiar words, 'I pledge allegiance to the flag...' But those words would be empty and meaningless unless the symbol they speak of were not inseparably anchored to something of substance. In fact, it is really the case that the somewhat archaic language is framed in such a way as to point us in the right direction. It would not be misleading to rephrase it as "I pledge allegiance to the flag because it is the symbol of something which is much more substantial: 'the Republic.'
Don't Wrap Your Ignorance in a Flag!
We do not live in a flag. We live in a Republic. We do not live in a Democracy. We live in a Republic. We do not live in a mere Republic, but a Republic of written laws with a written Constitution - a Constitutionally Limited Republic of Written Laws - a government of laws and not of men. George W. Bush took an Oath to the Constitution - not his daddy's business empire or a global elite; not the U.N., or the IMF or the World Bank. Perhaps he did take other oaths. Who knows? I don't hear him articulating anything remotely Constitutional. He wasn't reading the Constitution to those school children on the morning of September 11th. Was he? Now that would make a photo op. Wouldn't it? I'd pay to see that!
Our country is not a sports team or a large group of cheerleaders for Mr. Bush's family Industrial Military Oil Enterprise or any other combination of military or commercial enterprises or entities with designs for global governance. We are, lawfully speaking, a People who are responsible before Almighty God for the actions of our government servants. We are a self governed People according to ...This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof;... - Article VI, Clause 2.
The Tail is Wagging the Dog - It must be stopped!
If you haven't already, see the movie "Wag the Dog." It is like reading a script for what the federal government is doing right now, and has apparently done in the past. Why just the other day I thought 'W' must have rented the video before he stopped off to ask Hollywood to jump on board his propaganda machine. I can't wait to see "Mr. Neo-Patriot goes to Washington [not to burst your bubble, but Jimmy Stewart's character in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" was fighting for something that was unconstitutional - federal funding for a limited or private interest within one of the 50 States. For more on that read about Davy Crockett's Congressional career]. Hollywood has been prostituted for a lot of causes [this may be a redundant statement]. This would not be the first time they helped promote a war.
And what do the peasants in Afghanistan have to look forward to - a different way to be raped and pillaged? I bet they really got a 'kick' when they found out there were American cluster bombs and food packages of the same color being dropped from the sky: "It's not exactly Manna Akmed. It blows your head off when you bite it! Those Americans have such an infectious sense of humor. You just have to love them - or maybe they kill you and build a pipeline straight through your pasture."
One day we are told there are no valuable targets in war-torn Afghanistan and the next we hear they will need $50 Billion to rebuild. Hmmm? Some 'lucky' bankers will make the loans and some 'lucky' taxpayers will pay them back with interest. Some most favored companies will get the contracts. More campaign contributions will flow in the 'right' direction. Let's call it "The Circle of Death."
Does anyone else see all these anomalies? How deep is our national state of hypnosis?
God's best Blessings are Always conditional.
They are not reserved for those who despise their birthright. When He gets perfectly ready He will erase the nations that offend His true character.
My American Prayer
May God withhold every blessing from America until she desires justice more than revenge and until she scrupulously obeys her own laws and Constitution with regard to the protection of life and property [the only lawful function of government] and honors and preserves the sovereignty of every other nation especially those who have inferior military powers. May she never use governmental authority to the perversion of right and honor. May she never make war for plunder or for limited corrupt interests, and may she return to the principles of non-intervention in the political affairs of other nations that were expounded by the Founding Fathers, particularly our first President in his Farewell Address. May she shrink her government back to its Constitutionally limited size. May every corrupt politician in Washington have no rest until he or she does full honor and justice to his or her Oath of office or is replaced. May America once again lead the world by example instead of military might. May she be lifted up because of her virtue rather than seduced into national sins that could eventually bring your final judgment upon her. May her citizens wake up and remember their heritage and their destiny! Amen!
We have no national right to ask for God's protection if we ignore our own laws and the form of government with which He has so richly blessed us in the past.
If God still hates tyranny [as previously defined] there are those in Washington who have a lot of explaining to do. Maybe they will explain it to Him later? If they give only lip service to the Constitution we cannot afford to trust their overtures to 'war' or their calls for America to 'Police the World.' The American People need to police their representatives and exert sufficient political will to bring them back under the law.
The Challenge
Don't wave a 'war' flag in ignorance. Become a competent citizen who knows the Constitution and is fully awake and aware of the abuses of power that are now being excused in the name of 'National Security.' Let's all start waving the Constitution in the faces of our servants until they learn to obey their Oaths. Don't keep re-electing people who should be in jail.
A 'War' by any other name
I noticed this 'war' had to have its name changed at the outset. It seems the name 'Infinite Justice' would have offended Islam [as recently re-re-defined by any number of clerics of various faiths, government officials and media outlets]. We had to use the milder sanitized "Enduring Freedom." Obviously "Operation Destabilize Afghanistan so we can build a Pipeline" would have been a little too long. "Enduring Liberty" may have been a little confusing as well, given the circumstances and goals for this great 'humanitarian' outreach. It's for the children you know? It's always for the children!
The term 'Patriot' is also back in the news again. This time it's not a football team. It's not a missile. It's being used to promote 'HomeLand Security' while our people are being asked to discuss in advance just how much civil liberty they would be willing to give up in order to be 'safe.' Why not write your Congressman and ask him if we will all be safe when the government chains everyone to a tree?
"Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
As in the case with the somewhat misguided flag waving, the term 'Patriot [derived from the Latin word for country]' denotes love of country. But without Constitutional literacy patriotism cannot be substantive. It can only be symbolic. It is an empty patriotism at best - a way to feel good about yourself while you are losing your liberties. You cannot love a piece of dirt as 'America' without the Constitution. Without the Constitution America has no soul; no moral compass; no reason to exist as a nation. She is walking in the darkness of Constitutional ignorance and illiteracy.
America should not be in any rush to "Infinite Justice." She might just get it!
If Osama Bin Laden deliberately killed innocent men, women and children, he should be brought to justice by lawful means. He was already supposed to have been involved in many other serious crimes. But for some reason now is the time for us to support an international 'War on Terrorism?' Why now? Why is it such a far reaching effort? How many national sovereignties will be broken down? How far will arbitrary jurisdiction extend? How long will it be before an American President is indicted for 'Crimes Against Humanity'? If you reap what you sow it would behoove us to examine our seeds carefully. If we sow lawlessness we will reap chaos. American foreign policy is not a reflection of the Golden Rule. The State Department has not lately been a place where someone says "What would be our response if some other nation should try to do the same thing to us?" or "Let's treat all nations with justice and equity as we would expect to be treated ourselves." or "Let's teach all nations by example, that our Constitution, if obeyed, provides the best means for national and international safety without compromising our cherished civil liberties or violating the rights and sovereignty of other nations."
God? Bless? America?
If there is a God, America may have a bigger problem than even she can handle with all her military might. If she is perverting the use of her military for the purpose of dominating less powerful nations to ultimately subvert their economies and steal their natural resources, enslaving their people, for the enrichment of a powerful elite or global cartels and bankers, there will be Hell to pay for sure!
May God help us to restore the rule of law to America. And may we all humble ourselves, learn, and fully apply the fundamentals of self government as plainly taught and lived by our most worthy American Patriots [as defined in 1776].