We have become our enemies

America is the shining beacon on the hill. At least it used to be.

So why have we stooped to the level of those we hold in contempt? Why have we adopted the tactics of the people we disdained for so long for using those self-same tactics?

Josef Stalin used torture, internal extralegal spying, and claims of unlimited power to "protect" his country to keep himself in power. That was anathema to the righteous United States.

Now, the Bush Adminstration is using torture, extralegal internal spying, and claims of unlimited power to "protect" America to justify an unprecedented level of corruption and evil-doing in the name of democracy.

An American soldier is famous for saying in Vietnam, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." Bush is destroying democracy in order to save it now?

What bothers me most about this is that Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense, and the supposedly "liberal" New York Times sits on it for a year after the 2004 election. The Congress is debating the legality of what is clearly illegal to anyone who reads the Constitution.

If the American people let this slide, as they have the rest of the evil the government has foisted on them over the past few decades, then they deserve to live as cowering slaves rather than free Americans. They should just relinquish the name, "American."