The Pyrrhic Victory of The War on Terror & At Home

Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning should be are heroes.  They should be given parades, honorary diplomas and the rights to their stories sold to Hollywood.  Instead, PFC Manning has been locked away and is fighting with his advocate in Court and Snowden is prepared to be snatched in the night by his own government for letting his government's citizens know just how far gone our liberties since 9/11 the terrorists have won.

They won.

We lost are losing.

Every major politician who is, has, or wants to run for office under the umbrella of a strong national defense loves to tout that somehow they are, or want to be, or have been responsible for helping usher in the police state in order to prevent another 9/11.  Pretty much this:

It is approaching 12 years since the attack and yet the shadow of that event colors every federal US election.  Democrats or Republicans don't want to look soft on defense so they do everything they can to distance themselves from the Bill of Rights and turn their evil Sauron-like eye on their own citizens under the arrogant notion that safety is the paramount concern.

A victory in the so-called War on Terror does not begin at home (or abroad for that matter).  It does not begin by suspecting your own citizens.  It does not being with this new found hallowed idea that a preemptive strike is the philosophy for dealing with problems.  Watching our e-mails, social networking, listening to our telephone calls, reviewing our text messages is not going to make me safer, what it is going to do is set up a profile of me in some data center controlled and accessed by the NSA.  What I write in 2013 will be used against me should I do something in 2020 that the government doesn't like, that is PRISM, that is the road ahead.

The precedent is slowly being set and accepted by a loyal, flag waving populace who either are not paying attention, don't care, or worse, really think that this is keeping terrorists from winning.  Terror can achieve victory in more ways than simply resorting to physical violence.  The psychological threat is enough to usher in a feeling of panic, insecurity, and a desire to find a quick, temporary solution.  It is akin to a stalking victim carrying around a firearm, finger on the trigger ready to shoot the next shadowing figure walking next him or her.  It is not a solution, it is trauma.

The entire nation is stuck in a nightmarish world of PTSD from 9/11.  Naomi Klein wrote an excellent book, the Shock Doctrine, here's the trailer:

I would love to say that the people are waking up, but the mainstream media is taking a lax approach to covering PRISM, luckily we have a free Internet (for the moment) where all of us can rally against government abuse and really pad that PRISM profile at the same time.  Dissent is just as hard as patriotism, maybe harder.

This country was founded on Enlightenment principles of freedom, freedom from government, freedom to rebel, freedom to change, freedom to assemble, petition, and freedom to speak dissent.

PRISM monitors and profiles the dissenters as well as the terrorist cells in the US.  Presidents and politicians are fickle, but they like their jobs, all it takes is the loyal few to march, assemble, petition, and mouth off to get noticed.  It's what the founders would want expect.  Anything less, and the terrorists are winning without blowing anything else up.