As the United States continues to expand its global influence, the country is increasingly becoming a police state at home. The tactics used to suppress foreign populations through violence and military force are being mirrored domestically.
On September 25th, Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary during the Reagan administration, wrote an article entitled “It Is Official: the US Is A Police State”, in which he argued that the term “violent extremism” is being used to target anti-war activists and equate their activities with “the material support of terrorism”.
The FBI raids on American citizens echo the actions of the U.S. military in Iraq, where labor union offices were ransacked and labor leaders were arrested for opposing contracts between private oil firms and the occupying forces.
The United States prison system, which incarcerates 2.4 million individuals, has been likened to the Gulag that America has created abroad. The U.S. has become a global jailer, with the Bush administration allocating almost $400 million to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in 2006 for the construction of detention centers. This is a stark reminder that the same tactics used to oppress foreign subjects are being used against Americans.
This is not a new phenomenon. During the Philippine-American War, water torture was used against Filipino rebels, while American pacifists who opposed the Wilson administration’s entry into World War One were hung by their hands and had running hoses shoved in their faces.
The Nation magazine recently denounced the imperial presidency’s use of “secret armies, covert operations…offshore torture centers, out-of-control armed corporations, runaway military spending, wars by fleets of robots, wars by assassination—and all the other features of the imperial presidency…” in its July 25th editorial.
The magazine has long sought to end the erosion of individual liberty and privacy in the name of national security. However, it appears that the Reactionary Elite that runs America has become too powerful. Congress has approved President Obama’s five wars of aggression abroad and enacted laws at home that have led to the emergence of a police state.
Recently, in Orlando, Florida, two security officers conducted body scans of passengers entering a bus station without any probable cause. This is now the norm for those travelling by train or plane, with little resistance from the public. The Bush regime created “watch” and “no fly” lists that restrict individuals’ air travel, and those searched and/or stopped from flying have no recourse to challenge these decisions.
Robert Johnson, an American citizen, described the humiliation of being strip searched when he attempted to board an airplane in Naomi Wolf’s book “The End of America” (Chelsea Green). He said: “I had to take off my pants. I had to take off my sneakers, then I had to take off my socks. I was treated like a criminal.” This is now a common experience for many Americans, something that would have been unimaginable even during World War Two.
Fear of government is palpable in the air. People have begun to call me “courageous” for challenging the government, a testament to their fear of speaking out. David Cole, a professor at Georgetown Law School, wrote in The Nation that Congress reauthorized provisions of the Patriot Act last May, allowing the government to obtain wiretaps without identifying the person or phone, demand records from libraries and businesses without suspicion of criminal activity, and use surveillance powers against ‘lone wolves’. This is reminiscent of the ECHELON system the US and its British Commonwealth allies have employed since World War Two. Furthermore, Attorney General Eric Holder has granted FBI agents the power to search through citizens’ trash, conduct searches of computer databases, and use surveillance squads to track people without court approval. This has removed the only legal bulwark citizens have against unbridled police power, a situation that has been experienced by the people of Afghanistan and Iraq at the hands of the American-led military.
The devastating effects of war on the individual citizen have been felt throughout history, and today is no different. In the face of war, rights such as the right to form unions freely are disregarded, while the public treasury is looted to bail out bankers. This is despite the majority of constituents protesting this action. Similarly, foreign wars are waged despite the wishes of the popular majority who want them ended. This has resulted in a system of exploitation of the many by the few, with war being the ultimate sanction of this exploitation. This is a problem that has been seen throughout history, from the 16th century Spanish Empire, to the 18th century British Empire, to the 20th century Soviet Russia, Imperial Japan, and Nazi Germany, and to the United States today. Imperialism is a gangrene that expands tyranny at home as quickly as it spreads war abroad.
