We constantly hear President Bush talk about defending our country against our foreign enemies. He talks about safety and security all the time. But, let us take an important look at his oath of office which can be found in the last paragraph of Article. II., Section. 1. of the United States Constitution:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Although we must never let our guard down, we must also not let ourselves get distracted. The key point in the President’s oath of office is that the President is charged to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." - not the actual country, itself, but the Constitution. This is a critical distinction and I cannot recall a time, other than when President Bush has recited the oath, when he spoke of defending the Constitution.
Our foreign enemies cannot change our constitution. Our President should protect our Constitution in the same manner that museum curators care for their exhibits.
Another important point in the last sentence of Article. II. Section. 3. is "he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Obviously, the term
faithfully means more than just the letter of the law.
I firmly believe that there is no foreseeable foreign enemy which can destroy the United States. I also believe that the only thing, which can destroy our country, today, are “We the People.” By allowing our Constitution to be chipped away as we yield civil liberties to the "Patriot Act" and through NSA domestic wiretapping, we do the greatest harm that the Forefathers feared.
In life there are Principles and Values. Our constitution, which is a living document, represents our principles from which our values (laws, executive orders, etc.) are based.
To use a cartographer’s metaphor, the land represents principles and the maps are the values.
AT&T has allegedly enabled the NSA to violate the FISA by allowing the wholesale copying of all data traffic, including Web surfing, e-mail, voice, etc., passing through their networks. Of course, this makes the job easier for gathering intelligence - using this line of reasoning, allowing the police the ability to eavesdrop on any random phone call would also make their job easier, too.
Last week, I watched the CEO of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, get grilled by Congress for releasing private information to the government of China. Mr. Yang was told that his company should have known that, when the China government wishes to violate basic human rights, they put forth charges citing unspecific "state secrets" (a.k.a. national security). It should be keenly noted that, when AT&T was specifically asked about what access and information they allowed the NSA to collect without a warrant AT&T responded that they do not comment on issues of national security.
I would much rather be attacked by the Japanese at Perl Harbor and Al Qaeda on 9/11 than have our Constitution and civil liberties eroded even during a time of war. Our Forefathers only put a couple exceptions in the Constitution to be used during a time of war. Literally, our Constitution is more important than the United States of America.
Although the Roman Empire was not beaten by a foreign enemy, it still fell - from within. It is not enough to be undefeated.
