Fight Terror with Terror

I have a suggestion for a mind-bending exercise. First, get a copy of Martin Amis' 'Koba the Dread,' and read about Joseph Stalin and the brutal police state he created in the Soviet Union. Read about the many people Stalin terrorized, tortured, and executed. Learn how one man, in a position of unchecked power, ruled a large population of people with patriotism and terror. Marvel at the brutality of a sophisticated bureaucratic terror mechanism created from the fear of 'enemies to the state.'

Then, after you've digested that stinking hair-ball of history, get a copy of the latest New Yorker, and read Jane Mayer's story, 'The Outsourcing of Torture.' Learn how the USA has created an extra-legal category of human beings, 'illegal enemy combatants,' who have no claims to any legal process or rights. Learn how the President's lawyers have declared the President (a flawed, fallible human being just like any of us) above any law in the fight against terror. Learn how our supposed champion of freedom and democracy, has conspired in secret, and considers himself answerable to no one. Marvel at the ability of the CIA to kidnap people and whisk them off to other countries (Syria, Egypt) so they can brutally torture them. Savor the new term for this lovely practice: 'extraordinary rendition.' Learn how we've created a whole new class of people who have been rendered useless by prolonged, repeated torture. Learn how the press and the political class have basically responded to this new approach with silent cowardice.

Try not to feel guilty and implicated in crimes against humanity when you realize that your tax dollars help fund this new bureaucratic terror state and support obsecenities against man and basic principles of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.