Although I have enjoyed the Star Wars movies, I am far from thinking that George Lucas is a deep thinker, nor do I feel he is one of the great artists of our age. He accidentally touched upon a nerve at the right time, just as Gene Roddenberry did in creating Star Trek, they both provided avenues of escape from an unpleasant reality to millions who were disenchanted and disconnected with the world around them.

However, I find rather insightful and particularly relevant at the moment one quote from the final movie in the Star Wars series, Return of the Jedi, a movie I find to be the weakest of all six made to date:

You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
   -George Lucas, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

A comment to a post I wrote on how I feel the prison at Guantanamo Bay is unworthy of us as a nation was as follows:

Yeah, right on target, Jack.

Except, to qualify as POWs under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention, al Qaeda and Taliban detainees would have to have satisfied four conditions:

1. They would have to be part of a military hierarchy.

2. They would have to have worn uniforms or other distinctive signs visible at a distance

3. They would have to have carried arms openly.

4. They would have to have conducted their military operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

So, maybe not so on target.

And you know what? That awful, evil BushHitler even decided that the prison at Guantanamo would treat Taliban prisoners under the Geneva convention, because Afghanistan was a signatory to the convention. Bastard, isn’t he?

My response is:

I am not saying we should be adhering to the Geneva Convention for ANY reason other than it is the morally right thing to do, REGARDLESS of what our enemies do or how they behave.

Otherwise, if we let THEM set the standards for OUR behavior, how are we different?

I also have never used the term “BusHitler”, nor have I ever called the current President a bastard.

—

It appears that many are allowing their point of view, and their defense of it, to cloud their reason, their judgement, and their very perceptions of right, wrong, and what is honorable behavior.

I can find no other reason for this defense of behaviors that are indefensible, a defense that essentially says, “They piss on our flag, and they desecrate their own supposed holy book, so it’s OK if we do it too.”

When I was a child, my parents always said in response to my statements of “everyone is doing it” with a rebuke of “and if they jump of a bridge, will you do it too?”

The right-wing once fought against moral relativism, and still does when it is convenient for the advancement of their side and their agenda.

Apparently, though, when moral relativism is convenient for them, they defend it beyond all reason.

Although I describe myself as a left-leaning centrist who tries to be a moderate, I find myself in a position of explaining concepts of honor and absolute standards in response to those who could reasonably be described as at the least right-leaning.

I have in the past noted how the extreme rhetoric of our current age resembles that of immediately before the American Civil War, and what I see now only strengthens the similarities.

The “other” is demonized, even if they are fellow Americans.

The attitude of “us versus the-rest-of-the-world, with the rest of the world now including all dissenting Americans” now prevails.

I am not forecasting another Civil War such as that which we suffered upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the infrastructure and fundamental issues are different.

However…

The intolerance, intransigence, and excessive rhetoric of the time and how what is present now so closely resembles it can teach us a lesson that I expect and fear will be ignored.

We allowed the intolerance to get so intense in 1861 that in a very literal sense, brother fought against brother in a conflict that is still the most murderous in our entire bloody history, where more Americans were killed than in any other conflict, with over half a million dead in both the North and the South.

Now, we fling similar overheated rhetoric at each other, after all that has happened in the last four years, after the deaths, after the revelations, after the fact, denying any inconvenient facts in our quest for winning.

Winning at any and all costs.

No thought as to what consequences might arise, and what costs might be too dear to pay.

I do not believe in “my side” winning at any cost, if that cost is to destroy the principles upon which my country was founded.

I believe in both honor and fundamental principles.

I have principles upon which I base my opposition to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, principles that are independent of how our enemies behave, because I do believe in absolute standards, even if I am willing to listen, discuss, and upon occasion alter my standards based upon what others believe in strongly.

Those who choose to defend immoral and dishonorable acts based upon how our enemies behave are only fooling themselves with the moral relativism they themselves claim to despise when they see it in others.

I often wonder where my country is going when I read the defense of the indefensible by those who claim to have a higher patriotism than anyone else.

I often wonder where my country is going when I read accusations of “excessive idealism” and “not recognizing reality” from those who claim to be “realists”, despite their unrealistic view of the world as evidenced by the reality that has arisen in the last four years.

Am I infallible?

No, I am not, nor do I claim to be.

However, neither are those who present themselves as such, although there are many who if you read their writings appear to admit no possibility of any fallibility on their own part.

Is there a conclusion to this commentary?

No, there is not, although I wish I could find one, because it would be comforting.

Instead, we are left only with uncertainty and doubt, and I am left wondering what to think of those who I number as friends who seem to be intent upon defending what I find indefensible.

In the end, we are left only with uncertainty and doubt, the dual curses of thought…

Sorry, no comfort offered here, only questions.

Technorati Tags: commentary, fundamentals, opinion, personal, politics, quotes, some thoughts

…comes a concise statement of the mistrust of government, any government, that I hold:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In forming a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
   -James Madison

More on this later, when I answer a question posed in response to my definition of “moderate” and how it is different from “centrist”.

Technorati Tags: fundamentals, opinion, quotes

As scarce as truth is, the supply is always greater than the demand.
   -Josh Billings

Technorati Tags: quotes

…who cannot understand my fundamental reason for wanting to close the extra-legal prison at Guantanamo, perhaps this will provide sufficient incentive.

If we closed that prison and kept our “enemy combatants” in prisons that were both open to inspection and judicial review, we could refute accusations such as this:

Bush Issues a New Warning to Syria

June 11th, 2005 : Filed by ~A!

In a display of his colossal arrogance yet again, “president” George W. Bush issued another warning to Damascus yesterday, warning them to pull intelligence personnel out of Lebanon.

Our message to Syria – and it’s not just the message of the US; the UN has said the same thing – is that in order for Lebanon to be free,” Syria needs to “not only remove their military, but to remove intelligence officers as well.”

I’m not sure about anyone else who might be reading this, but I was taught that people in glass houses weren’t supposed to throw stones.

Bush talks a good game on freedom, and likes to tell other countries how they should run their elections, their governments, and treat their people. Meanwhile, we have how many people locked up in our gulag in Cuba without being charged with a crime? How many people abused and tortured by a military acting out the whims of their superiors?

There should be some kind of common-sense law that says you can’t tell people how to treat others until you can illustrate some ability to treat them yourself. If we’re going to be a model of human rights in the world, don’t we need to have some record of decent human rights?

I know, I know, “America has spread more freedom and liberty… blah blah blah” I’m not disputing the fact that America has done many, many things to further the safety and security of the people of this world. Of course we have. That doesn’t mean Bush has done any of it, nor his administration.

What the Bush administration has said about human rights and what they have done to erode them are two completely different things.

When Amnesty International was calling Saddam Hussein’s Baathists an oppressive regime, The US government was all too happy to use them as a source:

We know that it’s a repressive regime…Anyone who has read Amnesty International or any of the human rights organizations about how the regime of Saddam Hussein treats his people…

   Secretary Rumsfeld, 3/27/2003

But when it’s the US they’re talking about…..

Free societies depend on oversight and they welcome informed criticism, particularly on human rights issues. But those who make such outlandish charges lose any claim to objectivity or seriousness

Yes, Donny, free societies depend on oversight and welcome informed criticism. Good point. The Bush administration welcomes NO criticism, and suppresses oversight at every opportunity.

Truthfully, the people who have lost any claim to objectivity or seriousness are the people running the United States of America.

~A!

As long as we keep the prison at Guantanamo, we will be open to these charges.

As was written in The Economist over a year ago:

This claim that America is free do whatever it wishes with the Guantanamo prisoners is unworthy of a nation which has cherished the rule of law from its very birth, and represents a more extreme approach than it has taken even during periods of all-out war. It has alienated many other governments at a time when the effort to defeat terrorism requires more international co-operation in law enforcement than ever before. America’s casual brushing aside of the Geneva Conventions, which require at least a review of each prisoner’s status by an independent tribunal, made America’s invocation of these same conventions on behalf of its own soldiers during the recent Iraq conflict sound hypocritical.

It is unworthy of us.

I have recently written of honor besmirched, a concept that I thought was at least held by those in our Armed Forces, along with those who had served in that cause.

Do any of you now understand why I oppose the prison at Guantanamo?

I recently posted on my own concept of honor, and how I feel the honor of my country has been soiled and continues to be soiled by the choice of our government to maintain the extra-legal prison an Guantanamo Bay.

In that post, I disagreed with an assertion made by another blogger, someone whom I respect immensely.

I want to make it very clear I was not saying that the Average Tobacco Chewing Joe of Cadillac Tight has no sense of honor.

ATCJoe and I have had a relative long (in blogworld time) history of tussles and disagreements that have never degenerated to name-calling or a loss of respect for each other.

I want to make clear, unequivocally, that ATCJoe is at least as honorable as I am, perhaps more so.

For my regular readers, those that I have, I fully expect you to read what ATCJoe has to say with an open mind, and if you disagree with him, you can post comments in his weblog, but be sure to have both logic and facts upon your side, because he is a smart cookie, and tolerates fools no better than I do.

I tolerate those who do not respect my friends even less than I do fools.

Technorati Tags: opinion, personal, weblogs

…I find that sometimes, perhaps, they are one and the same…

Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see
Held so tightly in your hand?
   -Peter Gabriel, song: The Blood of Eden