Remember This Moment

In his WashingtonPost.com column today, Dan Froomkin calls the debate going on in the Senate as we speak "a defining moment for this nation". I couldn't agree more.

How will the world, and history, view this moment if we do not oppose it?

Most of these decisions (secret prisons, indefinite suspensions, kidnappings, torture, warrantless wiretapping, etc) were made in secret in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 by leaders who were scared and thus overzealous to prevent a great evil from repeating itself. Perhaps this was inevitable. Mistakes were made in previous wars (Adams passing the Alien and Sedition Acts, Lincoln suspending habeus corpus, FDR okaying the internment of Japanese-Americans), and those were made by Presidents who- unlike now- had great records and accomplishments to point to. Those mistakes did not win those wars, though, no more than the current ones (ie. how does wiretapping without a warrant make any operational difference?) will. They were aberrations that haunted us for decades.

But now five years after those decisions were made, with the worst of it now public, and rational thought slowly returning to the decision-making process, these same leaders were faced with a choice: To admit they had mistakes, as in many previous wars, but pledge from this point on to refocus their approach to the issue and return to the rule of law? That would seem the sensible option, but not to an administration obsessed even before the attacks with secrecy and power. Or- To seek congressional approval for their actions to continue as a way of retroactive absolution? Obviously they have chosen the latter.

And so what could have been written off by history as the temporary mistakes of an overzealous wartime President are now on course to become permanent parts of the American legacy and image. America will become to the world that which they intended to defeat in the first place.

The saddest part of this is, as the Washington Post editorial pointed out, how unnecessary all of this is. This legislation and this battle was forced as an electoral strategy, as one last effort to score cheap 'national security' points with a divided, confused, and scared electorate. So desperate is this administration to maintain their party's control on the Congress, out of fear of accountability among other reasons, that they would seek to degrade their country to acts which we have always denounced in other nations. This used to be the stuff of parodies.

Their actions will not defeat terrorism, not win the hearts of minds of moderates in the world, not defeat the insurgency in Iraq or the Taliban in Afghanistan, not bring back the dead of 9/11, not help our military out of their quagmires, not find Osama bin Laden, not restore our Treasury, and not bring the world closer to peace. They would rather win elections than win wars.

How sad that such opportunistic cowards have been chosen to lead this great country. And sadder still that we let them do it.

I love America, but it is our leaders who made me ashamed of it. But still, I believe in our democracy. I will not give up hope that this can be defeated. Or that, failing that, we can elect new leaders who will reverse this unamerican course and restore sanity to America. I remain, in my cynicism, inwardly optimistic.

If any of this seems over-the-top, it is only because you failed to pay attention.

UPDATE: Well, it happened... the Senate passed this historical monstrosity. All of the 'maverick' Republicans (McCain, Warner, Graham, Specter, etc) predictably voted for it. One Republican, one, voted against it- Sen. Chafee. Truly disgusting is the fact that 12 Democrats voted in favor of it- Carper, Johnson, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Lieberman, Menendez, Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, and Stabenow. I hope they are proud. More details- here. The vote is mostly ignored by the media. Drudge is pleased, of course. I feel ill. America just officially ceded the moral high ground.

UPDATE #2: In the House, they rubberstamped the President's illegal wiretapping program.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin