Jus in Bello

This book is a series of real-time essays composed during the last two years of the Bush Administration.  The source of my motivation emanated from a letter that I wrote to the Republican National Committee in 2004 to convince them that I was very dissatisfied with the direction that the country was moving and that I would not vote the Republican ticket in the national election and to drop me from the party’s mailing list.  In 2006 in the throes of the Congressional elections I started receiving the Republican mailings again.  When the Democrats gained limited control of the congress and the country was still on the “stay the course” mantra, I started this series of essays, mostly in letter form, addressed to the Democratic National Committee for their review and use during the next several months until the 2008 elections.  Of course, I had no idea at the time that this primary season would turn out to cover nearly the entire period of the congressional session.

Another motivation for me was to thoroughly understand the issues.  I felt that if I could put some of my thoughts on paper, I might be able to more fully understand the positions of the left and the right of current American politics.  I could put down my “two cents worth” and see how it melds with the talking heads and the candidates.  At the very least these written thoughts might reduce my personal frustration due to an apparent deviation from policies, freedoms and moralities that I had come to accept over a lifetime as an American citizen.  Unfortunately, this motivation only exacerbated my frustration, although I did see some sanity seep into the Bush Administration when the negativisms in the domestic public and the international community grew to such an astounding crescendo.  But this administration’s baby step toward rationality may have been too little; too late.  The first six years of this administration perpetrated an unabashed imperialistic, preemptive aggression on another sovereign nation-state, based on faulty intelligence while the legitimate target for our wrath was left to rejuvenate itself.  This powerful transnational organization is again back to strength and very possibly more dangerous than it was before 9/11.   During this time the administration’s economic policies imposed a crushing deficit on the populace and inflated the national debt by seventy per cent.  Our military, the envy of the world before March 2003, now lays prostrate, exhausted after six years of war.  Our allies of years past have bid their political farewell because of our aggressive behavior.  Meanwhile, time honored American freedoms were eroded in the interest of perceived increased safety.  

Ronald Reagan often referred to John Winthrop’s vision of “a shining city upon a hill” as a beacon for the rest of the world to follow out of a darkness of oppression.  In his farewell address in January 1989, the “Great Communicator” said:

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it.  But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, …teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get there.”

“…but more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true….  And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom….”