Terror and Liberty

America's civil liberties is part of what made our country unique when it broke off from the British Crown. They are the Enlightenment ideals that have been written down in our Constitution which sets the limits on governmental control over our lives. However, they seem to have been eroded away over time and this process seems to have kicked into overdrive whenever America is engaged in a conflict. The suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War (Jefferson Davis did this too), the destruction of German America during WWI, and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII are all examples of gross overreach of government power over its citizens that turned out to be rather useless and embarrassing in the long term. Since 9/11, this urge to curtail civil liberties has popped-up again, and this time it might be worse than useless with the Patriot Act, NDA Act, mass surveillance of all Americans, torture, targeted assassinations, suspension of habeas corpus and all that jazz. You might say the Constitution may not ably to terrorists, but I disagree with this premise, as if the Constitution is the document that espouses what America stands for then why ever would you discard? Meanwhile, the erosion of civil liberties in America itself, and elsewhere, may actually be contributing negatively to the prolonged War on Terror instead of being a tool of actual counter-terrorism.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." 

Has America's efforts to protect us, its citizens, actually improved our safety? Well, its sorta ambiguous. America's security and intelligence apparatus has had successes in foiling some terror plots every now and then, but it is not effective. Also, many examples of foiling terrorists actually seems to be "honey-potting" certain individuals into supporting something they actually don't. In the meantime, the Bill of Rights is being abused by our government. You may not care about your rights, and that's fine I guess, but you are giving the government more control over how you think and act by doing so. Who is to say that the next government doesn't like the way that you act and considers you dangerous? Are you affiliated with "Black Lives Matter" or the "Tea Party," if so you've already been labeled a terrorist by somebody. I can realistically see both potential left and right wing American governments that would try to use these measures of suppressing the Bill of Rights by outlawing certain types of speech, searching through the records of their opponents, or even arresting opponents due to their ideas. I don't think a dystopian America is a likely conclusion though, even if a radical politician takes the Oval Office, but it is a possibility and that is why its important. *


So why do I think these violations of our civil liberties are causing more terrorism? Well, it is because when the American Government commits extrajudicial acts it gives fuel to their ideology. By killing people off the battlefield through assassinations, committing acts of torture, killing tens thousands of civilians, or suppressing their right to have their idiotic and backwards beliefs, we become almost no better than they. Or at least in theory as I think America is still, by and large, the "good guy." This is hard to accept as America makes these mistakes when our most atrocious acts relating to the Middle East interventions may not come close to the atrocities of al-Qaeda, ISIS, or whatever Salafist Jihadist organization we are fighting next, but it needs to be accepted. From the viewpoint of many people living in the Middle East, that are largely ignorant of terrorist attacks against the West, see it as almost the opposite. We end up creating more terrorists by the end of the day, and this is partially responsible why the number of Salafi Jihadists has increase ~10-fold since the 1980s. In order to win we must play by our own rules, that is how we will win the "hearts and minds" of people in the region by following a "superior" code of law. It is by fighting the just fight, even if it is harder than before, as it is the right way to conduct ourselves in both domestic and abroad. We can't afford to "act tough" when we know that this isn't an episode of 24 or a Tom Clancy novel, this is the real world which is more complex than "find the bad guys, stop the bad guys, kill the bad guys."


Why do I think this will work? Am I giving in to the demands of terrorists by tolerating their beliefs in a society? Can America and its allies continue to operate the way it has been while fighting the good fight? Well, I do think this strategy would work even though it may come with its own set of challenges. I also think that accepting some forms of Islamism needs to occur, maybe not immediately but at least overtime. This doesn't mean that the US Government should start adopting Sharia, as that is diametrically opposed to the 1st amendment. What this means is that voices calling for Sharia (or honestly anything, in my opinion) should be free to do so without worry that their beliefs will make them end up being needlessly tortured in jail cell. Can America actually start negotiating with terrorists, as Gen. David Petraeus wants to do? Maybe. I am honestly not worried about the ideas of Islamic extremism being promoted in a free society, as their ideas kinda suck and only a few people buy into it. We can then focus on finding those who are carrying out violent acts that hurt others and rely on goodwill and targeted surveillance on certain individuals to prevent larger attacks instead of forcing Muslim communities to be spied on at large, which is actually counterproductive. Get the government out of people's lives.


This isn't a new idea, as I'm fairly sure this idea is at least 225 years old. America today is already fairly open to a wide range of groups that have engaged in terrorism in the past and we've seem to be fine with now. Can the same sort of historical trend be true of Islamic fundamentalists? I don't see why not today's Islamic extremists can become tomorrow's Irish republicans or Basque separatists. Of course more things need to occur to stunt the growth of terrorism, and some comes from America's foreign policy decisions which can spur terrorism. America's wars need to come to a close and stop our support for tyrants, such as the Saudi royal family, needs to come to an end. This does not mean we should stop killing terrorists when need be, we should. We just need to do it better, if that is possible.


Building trust with Islamic communities through trade and personal voluntary connections should be the basis of America's future with our own Muslim communities and the Sunni Islamic World abroad. The fight against groups like ISIS and Boko Haram should continue, but we should focus our power in a more clean and just manner than it is currently. Will that be the case and will the constraints on our civil liberties be lifted? Not likely, as a good chunk of the American populace along with most politicians disagree with abiding by Constitutional restraints, not committing torture, and not going to war. I can dream right? I'm just an overly idealistic college student, so if this seems overly idealistic it probably is. Although I'm in company with Benjamin Franklin, which is good company in my opinion.



*There's other reasons why rights are important, but that's a brief explanation. As is this whole post on terrorism, civil liberties, national security, foreign policy, etc.