I’ve been playing around with PHP and have set up some countdowns in my sidebar: the number of days until Election Day and Inauguration Day, and the percentage of time in the Bush administration that is over. Perhaps I’m being optimistic on the latter, but ya gotta think positive, right?
The Tin Man
Love the PHP stuff…I might have to steal it!
Musn’t count your Elections before they’re hatched.
Martial Law anyone?
We’ve had martial law in the past, in regions, and our democracy survives. What we’ve never had, here in disneyland, is a city destroyed, or even part of a city (WallStreet et al continue to function, despite 9/11) in a quick, single, coordinated action. That can, and most likely, will happen in our lifetimes. Think of Boston suddenly becoming uninhabitable one summer day either due to a rapid-n-massive anthrax release or a radiological event (like circa 10 contaminated firecrackers let loose on various subway lines during a morning commute) or the mere substantiated threat of such. That would trigger a “Severe” level on the Terrorist Warning chart. Or, the classic smallpox apples: they’re sold at various supermarkets in a city, then taken home, then to school, office, park, handled all along the way. Martial law? I hope so, even if the attack is slow to be realized.
One of the events most likely to happen at Severe is the evacuation of one or more cities, especially Manhattan. This has been spoken of repeatedly, albeit drowned out by our various sitcoms, movie releases, and lawn furniture sales. Martial law would be a no-brainer under either such an event — or threat of such. It would be logistically necessary, especially seeing alQaeda has spoken of using snipers and bands their soldiers roaming clogged highways, tunnels, and bridges slaughtering traffic-packed Americans in their SUV’s ever so easily.
Americans seem to believe that we’re very, very safe from events. They’d think it more likely in a sci-fi/tom clancy novel, than in our set of current events. That mentality persists even after 9/11 to the amazement of many. Maybe it takes the Americans being issued gasmasks and being ordered to prepare one safe-room per apartment/home, ala Israel.
Sure, martial law can be abused, despite its wisdom under such events. Should martial law be abused, and if American’s can’t organize properly to end such a long-term abuse, then our democracy is very, very fragile in indeed. Probably so given the current caliber of Americans about. Americans’ sloth, partisan reasoning, and consumerist values could only be blamed for that, amongst other cultural traits.
Any government that did not impose martial law after such events would be foolish. Remember how we waited for other events immediately after 9/11. And they never came because that event was a “test punch”. The next punch they throw will, wisely, have multiple punches spanned throughout in rapid succession, designed to stun and shock the victim into inaction and passivity.
rob@egoz.org
Jeez, Rob. Pontificate much? I don’t know about you, but the stuff you talk about scares the crap out of me, which is why, since 9/11, I’ve learned to think about it as little as possible, especially since there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. If you worry about this stuff, fine, but you really didn’t need to go into that much detail in my comments section.
Feel free to delete the portions that scare you, or all of it. Please do. ;-)
Nah, you wrote it, I’ll keep it in. This time. :)
I have lived one block from WTC (site) for more than ten years. Walked by it every single day. Now all there is is sky.
After 9/11, I had to wait three months before I could return to my home, where I still live.
So I am not naive re this subject.
Rob, I am fully aware that I do not know what your personal experience of 9/11 was. It’s not any of my business and surely not something anyone would try to “compete” over.
The bottom line is that while I disagree with your thoughts on Martial Law, I sincerely respect the passion evident in your comment.
Peace.
I experienced 9/11 vicariously from here in South-o-Boston via the TV. That said, i do have intimate experiences with both terrorism and terrorists. And, probably like yourself, have a number of strong emotions as a result of those experiences.
However, I don’t believe quantity of empirical knowledge of terrorism, their operatives, or 9/11 is a good base upon which one would argue for or against martial law; If anything, i think those emotions probably distort one’s reasoning regarding the subject of martial law. Instead, a calm understanding of the threats posed today (examples that overly scared some in my above comment), is a better base with which to judge the possible necessity of martial law. Examine what’s been done and what’s been proposed, and form an argument for/against. Simply put, any government that doesn’t impose martial law while evacuating millions of citizens is foolish, never mind the other threats outlined.
Sure, we cannot ever escape our own horrific experiences. Even with ptsd’s temporary expulsion/numbing of memories, those emotions still surface, even in the wake of, say, being unable to return home to pets and neighbors. But, we can control our emotions when evaluating a method such as martial law, with proper discipline, whether those emotions are of being scared, horrified, disgusted, or threatened. It’s just about good reasoning, sans emotions.
The probable necessity of martial law isn’t argued upon personal experiences, or emotions. It’s supported by potential threats, their probability, and surrounding events.
(And democracy is about all about expressing opinions (or pontification), and best of all, rebuttal. Otherwise, let’s shutdown comments, or limit their character size to a quantity more emotionally comfortable.)