Trading freedom for security and getting neither

Don Rumsfeld, the American defense secretary has been on a tear lately.

He was quoted in the Washington Post this morning (Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006), blaming the media for our disasterous course in Iraq.
"The enemy is so much better at communicating," he said. "I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say — all of which are not true — is harmful. It's cumulative. And it does weaken people's will and lessen their determination, and raise questions in their minds... "

This Rumsfeld blather could have more reasonably and honestly come from Howard Dean's mouth, referring to the Republican party's long history of lies, and it could more easily refer to the average American's strange loss of will and dignity.

I'm 55, I've seen America in a lot of different moods in my lifetime but never before have I seen this once proud and great country on its knees, hiding in the dark, shaking in terror because some piss-ant terrorist might blow up the local shopping market.

My father was English and fought in WWII. His mother was in London, and bombed during WWI, the so-called 'Great War.'
During the wars England suffered a nearly daily deluge of bombs and missiles on their cities, towns and villages with little whining and very little loss of their esteemed personal freedoms.

The quote: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," attributed to FDR, sums up America today. We shake and quiver and eagerly give up exactly that which most clearly defines America -- our Bill of Rights, our precious Constitution.

We've lost the most important war already, not because we're afraid to fight our enemies abroad, but because we're not willing to fight for our dignity and freedom at home. My American neighbors and fellow citizens have decided the freedoms and liberties our founding fathers and mothers fought and died for aren't worth protecting from our own leaders.

One of our most articulate founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, is widely attributed with saying, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

We have done exactly this and are reaping the result. What very a sad fate for this once great country.