My attitude about the Neo Cons is tantamount to the words of Jackson to Marshall on the issue of the Cherokee treaties.
These gentlemen have staked out a position and now they should seek to enforce it. But in this case understand it is not a backwater third world country's Supreme Court that is standing contrary to the claimed power of the Executive it is the whole world watching and sitting in judgment.
We are about to set a Shakespearian stage on issues of War, Peace, Law, and Power. We can only lose if we destroy ourselves in the process of our own defense. We face no enemy more threatening to the world at large than our own hubris. No one seeks to arm themselves to the magnitude of the Cold War unless we cannot appear to be answerable to the Rule of Law as practiced and respected globally and not merely by a few specific nations.
So far we have been lying to the court and presenting trumped up evidence, we have enacted a strategy of limited potential and result. The fact that the results as proposed were not the ones that justify this act in a legal manner prior or after is of serious concern. If this nation will behave in a rogue manner (and that is the definition of the action we have taken were it by any other nation) can it be trusted with the extent of power being requested?
Additionally the issue of Transnational Private Security forces intermingled and functioning as "Private Self Interested Militias" providing the supply chain as opposed to a Popular Militia composed of the citizens may in fact be illegal under the Constitution as it is written.
We do not have an illustrious history of respecting foreign sovereignty and the current situation has started poorly and many nations involved have long memories and are not as ignorant of our history as most of our own citizens. The same players are at it again, as the Neo Cons today might as well be the founders of the modern Democratic Party (ironically as the 'Jacksonians' were), and today the Neo Liberals opposing them are like the 'Whigs:' The reincarnation of the National Republicans who were opposed to them in that infamous telling moment of American history.
Edited by Lazarus Long, 09 January 2004 - 10:50 AM.