In another blow to the US Constitution, as his last act of 2011, President Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) [1], which will allow for the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without charging them. What is more deafening is that Obama’s liberal supporters who wanted GITMO closed are eerily quiet on the issue. While citizens in the Middle East are rising up against their oppressive leaders, we seem to be in the infancy of creating a police state with the complacency of the American people.
Given the death of Osama Bin Laden and the estimates of only a few hundred Al Qaeda members active worldwide [2], it is strange that such a severe measure was deemed necessary by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama, even when told by two 4-star Marine generals that the bill was “misguided and unnecessary [3].” A few years from now, how easily will this act allow for the military to indefinitely detain American citizens for doing the following:
– Drug and Human Trafficking
– Joining a local Tea Party chapter
– Demonstrating at an Occupy rally
– Posting on a blog (uh oh, watch out Jim!)
The loss of civil liberties is a slippery slope and is typically justified with the rare examples of extreme behavior. Does anyone doubt the United States had a rock solid case against Anwar al-Awlaki? But instead of trying him in a civilian court, he was tried in absentia by the Yemeni govt and then assassinated by an unmanned drone. Since when as Americans did we allow the outsourcing of our judicial system?