Unitary Power and the Praetorians

 

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/

This is an interesting story regarding the way the government is integrating meta-data and using it to target people. Obama has in every way continued the general trajectory of Bush administration policies with regard to the Terror-War... a permanent war which is fundamentally changing the way the American government functions.

As Commander-in-Chief the president can claim almost Unitary authority in the realm of war powers. The secret to the power grab is to militarize every aspect of society. Make everything into an issue of security and thus under the domain of the executive. This began in earnest on 12 September 2001.

It is by no means the province of the president alone. With him is a significant cadre of business, intelligence and military affiliates...the Praetorian Guard as it were. Using a combination of executive privilege, military secrecy, mercenary forces and outside and thus hidden funding, the US government can essentially be run outside of congressional oversight and the democratic process.

The question is...are these same forces at work within the realm of political campaigns? Have they already subverted the Congress? How would we know? With the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling all transparency has been eliminated.

If you'll pardon my use of an old cliché, we are crossing a Rubicon.

In the name of security and the overarching goal of American Unilateralism the Constitution is being systematically undermined.

This reporting is critical. The US government is nothing less than aggressive in its foreign policy and military action. It is being done in our name. The American public slept through the 1990's and could not understand what motivated the 2001 attacks. To simply call the attackers 'evil' is to miss the point. They acted for a reason and it wasn't because they just hate the fact that we're so free. They were responding (murderously) to actions and policies that were having a direct and often violent impact on their societies. It's too easy to just dismiss them as fanatics.

Rather than defeat terror, (which is actually a tactic not an ideology that can be defeated,) it's the creation of a war that cannot end and that's the point. Rather than defeat it, it's fomenting further unrest and will continue to generate Blowback. But endless war empowers key forces in and behind the government.

And, there are people that stand to make unbelievable amounts of money.

Within our borders we're being slowly converted into a militarized police state. Conservatives may scream about the Constitutional abuses of the Obama presidency with regard to drones and kill lists, but these things were championed just a few years ago when another administration occupied the Oval Office.

And I have no doubt that will once more be the case should a Republican win in 2016 or 2020.

In the end it matters little to me who holds office. They're all cut from the same cloth are sponsored by and answer to the same set of forces. I don't want to see a government perpetrating crimes in my name and I don't want to see any state wielding that kind of power.

You don't have to be a historian to realize it's a dark road that comes to a bloody end.

Exposure weakens these powers. We don't have to agree with all of the motivations of the journalists and leakers who have taken on the American Babylon. We can watch and learn, speak the truth and denounce evil. We don't ever have to be afraid of the truth. For followers of Christ there is nothing more potent and illuminating. We can be salt and light to a dying world that lives in darkness and delusion.