Fascism...

I attended an event tonight about the injustices occurring in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from first-hand accounts of a law professor who has advised many clients there. One person from the audience asked what one person can do to stop these atrocities, and help the unjustly imprisoned men. His response was "write your Congressman," though he added the reason Gitmo exists is because our administration wants the law separate from war decisions. They don't want little things like the Geneva Convention, habius corpus, or simple human rights to get in their way. The first thing that came to mind after he said that was: Starship Troopers.

OK, I should explain that. Heinlein's book and Verhoven's movie turned out to be frighteningly prescient when it came to military policy of today. The movie especially, which has large amounts of satire, draws plenty of parallels with modern events. Buenos Aries = WTC, Bugs = terrorists, Fednet = Fox News, etc.

Some lines are really close to reality:
"The only good bug (Arab) is a dead bug (Arab)!"
"I'm from Buenos Aries (NY), and I say kill'em all!"
"...to ensure that human (white/Christian) civilization, not insect (Arab/Muslim), dominates this galaxy (world), now and always!"

See what I mean?

When Rasczek says "When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.", it seems our government has taken that too literally. Someone doesn't agree with you, kill'em. Someone has what you want, invade and take it. 9/11 was one thing, but to continue to use that to justify being the world police stinks of Hitler and Mussolini.

To quote my boy Frank Herbert, "Power attracts the corruptible." It sure did here, Frank, it sure did.