NDAA: Where Are The Terrorists And Why Haven't We Heard About Them?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/indefinite-detention-of-american-citizens-coming-soon-to-battlefield-u-s-a-20111209


See, this is why I don't buy the argument that the Occupy Movement are just a bunch of malcontent rabble-rouser anarchists (or whatever your preferred slur against them is). "Indefinite Detention" doesn't just mean a cop is gonna put you in a holding cell because you were a dick to him at a traffic stop; it means that anything you say or do that he deems "suspicious" is grounds for immediate arrest and detention. And his definition of "suspicious" is subjective. Make a joke he doesn't like? Grounds for arrest. Get pissed off because you're going to be late to a hot date (or family dinner... or a business meeting...) and raise your voice to him? Grounds for arrest. He doesn't like the political bumper sticker on your car? Yup, that's right; no "due process" for American citizens, he can fucking arrest you for that too, and what's more, he can do it without having to worry about EVER getting in trouble for it.

Some have said that Occupy shutting down the ports is misguided and an attack on the supply chains that will affect ordinary Americans more than the businesses and Elitists that are Occupy's real targets. While I see merit and logic in this argument, especially for essential goods like medicine and equipment needed to protect and safeguard lives, for the most part, America's commercial markets are largely over-saturated as it is. Nobody is going to starve to death because protesters disrupted the supply lines for a few days that wasn't going to already under the inequities of the current economic problems. And it will only be for a few days, at MOST, even if they send the cast of the Police Academy movies to break it up. The police have already demonstrated they have little issue with using pain compliance techniques against unarmed civilian protesters. There's absolutely no reason to believe that they won't turn up the volume now that protesters are committing bigger crimes than camping misdemeanors.

No, the Occupation of the Ports won't last long. Especially if the Government authorizes the Military to shoot anyone they deem to be a "domestic terrorist" resisting capture. Alarmist as that may sound, that's exactly the kind of authority the U.S. Government wants to give itself; what makes you think they won't use it? Terrorists don't have the rights of Citizens.

When there's legislation like NDAA on the verge of being passed, this is no longer a passive and reasonable Government being bullied by a mob. Declaring U.S. soil to be a legit "battlefield" means that all the rules that govern civilian conflict and detention and "due process" fly right out the window based on a completely different kind of subjective assessment with a completely different kind of oversight. You can ask anyone in the military or do a google search to find out just how different the rules of war are compared to the civilian sector. 

If America is now being declared a battleground, if the U.S. Government has essentially declared it's intentions to engage in warfare tactics against it's own people and bring the Military to bear for that purpose (which, by the nature of NDAA and the fact that it's provisions for protecting the rights of American Citizens were rejected outright, is what is being implicitly said), then the Occupiers are enemy combatants, and it's a common and thoroughly effective tactic of war to disrupt supply lines.

Not saying I agree with it. But in his excellent blog, Stonekettle Station (which, if you aren't reading, you're sorely missing out), Jim Wright points out, "No technique works if it isn't used."

I also happen to agree with Jim that in reasonable circumstances the electoral process should be engaged before attempts at populist revolution, because it's the agreed-upon system in place to make these kinds of systemic changes. I also agree that the United States isn't anywhere NEAR oppressing it's people to the point that a full-scale public uprising is any kind of justified. But this legislation is a huge step in that direction. There isn't *time* to go through the electoral process; this shit is going on RIGHT NOW. This is *exactly* the right time for public protest and outrage. No, we don't need a violent revolution and overthrowing of the Government, but people SHOULD be pissed off and outraged that this kind of legislation is being slammed through this quickly. Maybe I'm out of the loop or something, but I don't recall hearing all that much about these bills as recently as last MONTH. That's a DISTURBINGLY short amount of time for something this major to be getting pushed through. Even the Patriot Act was a special case, enacted in the hysteria directly following 9/11. What's the excuse for this one? What Terrorist threats exist on American soil today that need to be fought this urgently that the U.S. Government needs the power to use military forces against them?

I see things like NDAA, and the parts of my genetic and cultural memory that remember Concentration Camps, Gas Chambers, and the Warsaw Ghetto start poking at me. I can't help but recall how the Nazi party worked to disenfranchise and demonize the people they later rounded up and shipped off. There have been BOOKSHELVES written about how ordinary people wish they had spoken up for the people around them who were being marginalized and taken away, how they should have been more active in opposing the tightening Fascist control, how even people at the top levels of society were eventually disenfranchised because they didn't fit precisely with the Nazi model. I can't help but wonder how far the Nazi party would have gotten if groups like Occupy and Anonymous existed back then to engage them in informational and social warfare on the scale that the modern era is capable of.

Granted, I also recognize that the socioeconomic, political, and cultural atmospheres of modern America and mid-20th century Europe are NOT the same. But many of the same economic and political trends are comparible, and one of the first adages I learned as a child was, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

We're not at the point where violent revolution is necessary yet, and we sure as hell aren't living in a fascist police state. And hopefully, thanks to the combined efforts of Occupy and Anonymous causing activist disruption and public outcry in cyber- and meatspace, in CONJUNCTION with the use of the electoral process, we never will be.