Fascism - It Has Happened Here POSTED by Firstborn   Author:  16671  Category:(Discussion) Created:(7/19/2002 10:08:00 PM) This post has been Viewed (525 times) In 1935, the American writer Sinclair Lewis, best known for his novels, Main Street and Babbitt, wrote It Can't Happen Here, a tale of an American president who becomes a dictator to save his country from welfare cheats, promiscuity, runaway crime, and a liberal press. Enraged by the fascism sweeping Europe, Lewis wrote his novel as a rejoinder to its title. Yes, fascism can happen here, he warned. Were Lewis alive today, he would re-title his novel: It Has Happened Here. George W. Bush promulgates a new defense doctrine that would allow the Pentagon to undertake pre-emptive attacks. "If you wait for a threat to fully develop, you've waited too long," he explains. This is like walking down the street and emptying an M-16 into passers-by who aren't wearing business suits. "Potential muggers," you explain. "If I waited to find out whether they were friend or foe, I would have waited too long." The Justice Department declares that "the military has the authority to capture and detain individuals whom it has determined are enemy combatants in connection with hostilities the Nation is engaged, including enemy combatants claiming American citizenship. Such combatants, moreover, have no right of access to counsel to challenge their detention." To put this plainly: If the president, or his operatives, don't like you, for whatever reason, they can have you thrown in jail indefinitely, without charge, without the right of appeal, without access to council or the civilian courts. Indeed, the Justice Department says the courts "may not second-guess the military's enemy-combatant determination." And then it goes on to warn that "a conflict of military and judicial opinion (would be) highly comforting to the enemies of the United States," whoever they are, but apparently there are a lot of them -- countries and individuals, including individual Americans -- just waiting to be designated as such by the commander-in-chief. Would it be too much to say this amounts to a police state? Would it be too much to say the President has become a dictator? Would it be too much to say that Washington's militarism is frighteningly similar to the Nazi's (expect more ambitious)? "If such a thing were happening in any other country," editorialized the Washington Post, "Americans would know exactly what to call it." So would Sinclair Lewis. I did not write this, however I do agree with it. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or interesting stories for the world to read and respond to Click here Scroll all the way down to read replies. Show all stories by   Author:  16671 ( Click here ) Spring is coming