Opinions and features

After the 9-11 event
is the end in sight for No.1?

C. Gerald Fraser
Senior editor, The Earth Times

How long will the United States of America last? Why will the USA fade? These questions intrigue me. I know that the roster of once- mighty nations is long. Sooner or later the greatest powers wane. The Holy Roman Empire reigned for some 900 years; the Songhai Empire lasted 700, and, as the pace of the world's activities quickened, the sun set on the British Empire in a couple of hundred years. Perhaps, like humans, nations play a leading role on the world's stage and then exit, the lucky nations exiled to a supporting cast.

No one who knows America was surprised that although there now exists an International Criminal Court, the United States characteristically resorted to military power in reacting to terrorists's actions--for which no motive has been declared.

The suicidal airborne onslaught 11 September 2001 (called the" 9-11 event" by local New Yorkers) killed thousands, destroyed a national symbol of financial pre-eminence, and blasted the nation's military kitchen where war is cooked up. The United States responded traditionally with B-52 bombings and "Special Forces" slipping into Afghanistan ostensibly to get one man "dead or alive," the U.S. President said.

Few bodies were hauled from the World Trade Center's jumble of iron, hot steel, smoke, particulate matter, and concrete when the Republican administration began its evisceration of the U.S. Constitution.

Ari Fleischer, the President's spokesperson said people must "watch what you say." The senior U.S. Senator from Virginia, Republican John Warner, told Americans, "Think of yourself as an agent - not to spy on your neighbor, but to judiciously report anything that looks suspicious."

Republicans in Congress ran to their filing cabinets. They withdrew their "wish list" proposals and presented to the pusillanimous Congress and Senate bills - which Democrats and Republicans eagerly enacted into law - "To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes."

Some 57,000 words on 164 pages expanding ways to detain, search, spy on, profile, deport, and imprison guilty and innocent (as if all this could not already be done) in the name of national security and regardless of the Bill of Rights. President George W. Bush told the United Nations,."We've adjusted our laws." Law enforcement is now sacred.

To underscore all of this, the government created the Office of Homeland Security. An indelicate title, but revelatory of the Bush Administration's thought processes. Conservatives along with so-called "liberals", anxious "to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history", now discuss whether persons arrested following the 9-11 event, should be tortured.

What did Americans do after the morning of terror? They bought flags. They waved flags. They hung flags from windows. They wore flags. As days passed, I wondered if they were trying to send a message to the Federal government, "Hey, this is America, land of the red, white, and blue. Don't forget the Constitution."

But, no. Long-stunted faculties for critical thinking produced no rational cerebral response to 9-11. Thus, the unfurling of myriad star spangled banners accompanied by the scuttling of civil liberties persuaded me that this may be how the end will come to an oblivious citizenry and a self-destructive government. Is "Number one" in an inexorable descent into has-been superpowerdom?

Copyright 2001 C. Gerald Fraser

Your response is welcome. Click Message Board on the Contents list to upload your views.