Friday, October 20, 2006 3:20 PM
I'm reading some rather disturbing news articles lately. For instance, this article talks about the recently signed Military Commissions Act, which sounds like anyone can be considered "an enemy combatent" and thrown into jail without having a fair trial. Really. I'm freaked out about the whole notion of elected local police forces as it is...this isn't doing anything to calm my nerves. Is this something that the American people really feel is necessary to keep the country safe, or is it just creating more fear-mongering...not just for the people of the US, but for tourists that hopefully don't get caught in any mistaken-identity type of situations.
Then there's this story about Black Hawk helecoptors being used to patrol the Canada/US border. At least they're being up front about the purpose: combat terrorism. A spokesman for the US Customs and Border Protection agency states in the article: "They will fly missions along the border to prevent terrorist and terror weapons from coming into the US." and "You basically start with a matrix are they terrorists, or with terror weapons? Then you go down from there."
As a Canadian, I honestly don't feel comfortable travelling to the states anymore for just pleasure trips. I think North Dakota is still relatively Manitoba with all green money, but apparantly times are going to be changing and the closeness our countries once enjoyed is shrinking in light of the "war on terror".
For some reason, I'm seeing visions of that little cartoon about slavery and guns from Farenheit 911 and that scene from South Park where Jimbo and Ned take the kids hunting, and they tell them that its ok to shoot something as long as you say "It's coming right for us!" first...but the sad thing is that we hear about this sort of fear-mongering, and yet all my US friends don't buy into the whole thing...so maybe its just the media making it seem that the US is this powder keg of tension and angst...so, is it?
D