(AaronDykes) – Would it be taken as parody to openly state that the United States has moved away from its Constitution, and the hope that its concept of freedom would be a light upon the world, and instead shifted towards ‘The Dark Side’– that is, the kind of evil empire portrayed in Star Wars? The language authorizing the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial under the sections 1031 & 1032 of the 2012 Defense Authorization Act take America many steps towards that fictional but importantly symbolic Empire– it too a broken and corrupted Republic.
But it is much more than the naked tyranny demonstrated under NDAA. It is the direction towards paradoxical control by the State, sold psychologically in Orwellian terms. Preemptive strikes define the atmosphere of lawlessness and paranoia that has painted in succession terrorists, rogue states, patriots and homeland dissidents as threats that must be dealt without outside the framework of due process and the rights explicitly stated under the Bill of Rights.
THE DARK SIDE, BORN ON 9/11
Somehow victory in the War on Terror was successfully accepted under a definition that saw constitutional protections under the Fourth Amendment, preventing warrantless checkpoints and guarding privacy, as a barrier to stopping the bad guys under due diligence. This same attitude, coaxed under the manufactured fears from 9/11, helped to stifle, but not stop, free speech and encouraged legislation and administrative policies that disregard (and even spit upon) many of the Bill of Rights– from warrantless wiretapping, to policies on torture and legal-roundabouts turning definitions like waterboarding, spying, searches, enemy combatant status, lawful detention & imprisonment, “war” and many other important concepts upside down, all with legal ramifications. And it’s no wonder why, as the president during this era had referred to the Constitution as ‘just a goddamned piece of paper.’
Dick Cheney as vice president openly quipped about working “on the dark side” to win the shadowy War on Terror. This fight has been not only ill advised but completely destructive in its vision to fight against extremists at the direct, proportional expense of the Bill of Rights and rule of law. This from a vice president who lives with an artificial heart and openly embraces satirical comparisons of himself to Darth Vader. He made the joke before a Heritage Foundation audience (during a remembrance of the Reagan-era ‘Star Wars’ missile defense program) and even appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno dressed in a Vader costume; he even laughed that he was ‘honored’ to be compared to Vader while promoting his memoir.
But it’s no joke.
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