Martial law.
It’s no longer a fear reserved for those with tinfoil hats on their heads.
The idea that George W. Bush may declare martial law (in some form) and assume dictatorial powers becomes increasingly likely as time goes by.
Every new revelation of police state tactics, or of ignoring the will of courts and Congress, is met by lower approval ratings. Even conservatives are scared.
- All your call records, going back five years, are now in government hands.
- All your Internet records have been sought.
- The President claims the right to lock up, torture and kill American citizens without trial.
- Court decisions have been circimvented, precedent ignored.
The trend cannot continue. If these crimes are freely investigated, the result will not be impeachment, but the arrest of the President, and a trial in either Washington or The Hague for crimes against democracy and humanity.
The precedent of these actions cannot be allowed to stand, and democracy live. The people of the United States know this. Left, right or center, we know this. If given the power to choose, Americans will stand for democracy over dictatorship. The election is now less than six months away.
For a messianic leader who believes himself on a mission from the Almighty, this cannot be allowed to happen. Maybe the election can be stolen. But maybe it can’t.
What then?
If martial law comes, by any name, Americans will revolt.
Many in the military will refuse the President’s orders, citing their loyalty to the Constitution. NRA members will seek to employ their Second Amendment rights, even if those rights are "temporarily" taken on an "emergency" basis.
Blood will flow as it has not flowed in this nation since the 1860s. And the result of that struggle is inevitable. The U.S. military cannot occupy Iraq, a nation of 30 million, with 135,000 troops. How can it occupy a nation of 300 million?
Bush will fall, and the revenge will be complete. He will be killed, as will all members of his Administration. As will, likely, his family, all his relatives, their goods and property taken away, the survivors left to exile, their names remembered alongside those of Hitler, and Goebbels and Goering.
This is inevitable. It may take time. It will destroy our economy. No one will win. We will be left like Argentina, our children impoverished, our grandchildren too. Millions of Americans will die in the process. But freedom will out in the end, because we ARE Americans, all of us, regardless of our positions on specific issues.
Martial law may be sold to Bush as a brave act to Defend America, but it is the act of a coward, who will die a coward’s death, and for whom a special place will have been reserved in hell.
Fair warning, Mr. President.
