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.

Turkey Behaving Badly

Turkey and its president, Recep Erdogan, has been in the news lately for seeking legal actions against European comedians and journalists that dare insult Erdogan. This violation of the freedom of speech is nothing new for Turkey and Erdogan who are increasingly cracking down on political dissenters at home. Thankfully, in America you can criticize and mock anyone you want, regardless of what certain fools would like to do.

2-year jail sentence in Turkey

Turkey has also stepped up its efforts to deny the Armenian Genocide that happened during final days of the Ottoman Empire nearly 100 years ago. Keeping with the trend of violent repression and denial, we can look at the current Turkish effort to "pacify" its southeastern Kurdish regions, which looks almost no different from the efforts of Bashar al-Assad's violent campaign against his own people. Turkey has been a major player in calling for the removal of Assad, but in the process has allowed ISIS to expand upon its borders, escalate tensions with Russia, and attacks US-aligned Kurdish fighters. Turkey also has an Ultra-Nationalist party, the MHP (which thinks Erdogan is actually too soft), that is connected to the Grey Wolves terrorist organization which commits atrocities against Kurds, liberal Turks, Chinese people, and even Thai civilians.

America might want to reanalyze its partnership with Turkey in the future, as it is an important strategic ally in the region and is a large growing economy. However it is behaving badly and just maybe we need to put its NATO membership on probation. Turkey isn't quite the lost cause that Saudi Arabia is and Turkey's leadership has shown to be competent at times, yet it may be time for some serious pressuring to put Turkey back on track to being a regional power for stability and democracy instead of a nationalist authoritarian state that's picking fights with its neighbors and its own citizens.

"You're causing more problems for me, and your protection." - US SS agent to Turkish Presidential Bodyguard

The Saudi Problem

Saudi Arabia is a terrible country that invades its neighbors, represses human rights, and spreads an extremist ideology, known as Wahhabism, that helps drive the majority of Sunni Jihadism today. Yet the United States and our European allies continue to moderately support this outright criminal state and out economy is still reliant on Saudi Arabian oil which has recently flooded the market and has caused many American oil companies to go bankrupt which are causing oil boom states such as North Dakota and Oklahoma to head towards recession.

Arm Sales to Saudi Arabia

Other concerns arise from Saudi Arabia from their proxy war with Iran which could lead to even more widespread conflict in the Middle East, that would likely drag America back into a new ground war, to their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks, which may be revealed in the coming weeks.

There are more reasons why Saudi Arabia is a terrible place such as this:

World's Leader in Incest!

There seems to be some minimal progress from the Obama administration in reducing our ties with the Saudis, and most of the 2016 candidates seem to be anti-Saudi. Unfortunately that doesn't mean the candidate most likely to win doesn't support the Saudis though, quite the opposite.

The Saudis will reap what they sow in one form or another. Their thing for incest already has them near the top in the rates for birth defects for one thing. Their war in Yemen against the Houthis has been a failure so far by all measure. The Saudi state itself is at an increasing risk of upheaval and political strife, such as seen in Egypt and Syria could be around the corner. Even their flooding of the oil market to kill competition has made their own economy both non-diverse and unstable which could lead to their own economy collapsing. Their oil profits might also come back to bite in the form of increased temperatures over 140 degrees Fahrenheit due to anthropogenic climate change in the region which would be pretty intolerable for human life. 

Why wait for the inevitable though? So do we end arm sales, embargo Saudi oil, end all military assistance, or even cut ties altogether? Cutting ties goes too far in my opinion as American foreign relations need to be bilateral with all nations, even with nations that don't see eye-to-eye, especially with nations that don't see eye-to-eye. However I do believe the end of arm sales and military cooperation with the Saudis can and should end without major consequences. The harder thing to do for America is to embargo Saudi oil as the American economy is still somewhat reliant on oil prices. Yet it is probably the best thing for America in the longterm, not only by strengthening America's energy independence and cutting funds to the Wahhabi fundamentalists (aka terrorists), but by giving America bargaining chips if Saudi Arabia reforms out of the backwards totalitarian petro-state that it is currently into something that is at least not despicable.