The Home of the Afraid

November 20, 2009  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

The season of the “Chicken Little Hawk” is among us.

Once upon a time Chicken Little Hawks (then just known as Chicken Hawks) were proud angry, warmongerers screaming how “Freedom isn’t free” and goading anyone within earshot if you didn’t want to bomb Iraq until its name was Mesopotamia again you should be tried for treason. But they were chickens in the sense that they weren’t the ones who were going to bear the actual brunt of the war. They were more bumper sticker warriors or Pundit Patriots – Speak loudly and let someone else hold the stick. Arguing over flag pins and burning Dixie Chicks albums.

So it shouldn’t surprise you that the same folks who brought you the Iraq War (that they did not go fight), would reveal themselves to be the “sky is falling,” yellow-bellied, Chicken Little Hawks they are over civil trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

It was always all about the fear card for them.

We had to go to war, they said! Weapons of Mass destruction (that we never found), they cried! They puffed out their little feathered chests and they ordered our brave men and women of the military into a war without end.

But now their chests are oddly concave, as they curl themselves up into a fetal position and scream, “No, no, no!” over trying terrorism suspects from Gitmo. What happened to the pride in our country, our way of life, our justice system? Because when the right wingers stamp their feet and go bananas over Khalid Shaikh Mohammed coming to the US for trial, what they’re really saying is – I don’t believe in the American system! If we play by the rules we might offend the terrorists!

“My constituents in Oklahoma deserve to feel safe, and we will not feel safe with some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world - men who would kill thousands for an extremist ideology - on our soil.” – Sen. James Inhofe on Gitmo detainees being tried in the U.S. (Press release)

"If we transfer al-Qaida terrorists to Illinois, the Chicago area will receive increased attention from the Jihadist world. As home to America's tallest building and her busiest airport, this is not a risk we should impose on Illinois families." – Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois (Suburban Chicago News)

“The Guantanamo Bay prison is filled with the worst of the worst – terrorists and killers bent on murdering Americans and other friends of freedom around the world.  If it is closed, where will they go, will they be brought to the United States, and how will they be secured?  Will they be released by the courts.” – House Minority Leader John Boehner (Press release)

“Our criminal justice system is geared to let guilty people go free if there is any doubt. That's the way it is — better — better to have nine guilty go free than one innocent person convicted.” – Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the upcoming New York trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Fox News)

Shaking their fists to mask the knocking of their knees, Chicken Little Hawks are two steps from rewriting the last lines of our great National Anthem to: “The land of hypocrisy and the home of the afraid.”

So what do these guys believe in? The terrorists. They believe every word the terrorists say and that we should mutilate our justice system to fit the warped view of al Qaeda. You see, to these right wingers, the American way of justice is just too weak to handle terrorists. Never mind that more than 300 terrorists in our prisons right now. Or that 195 terrorists have been tried and convicted since 2001. Chicken Little Hawks don’t do facts – they do fear. And the terrorists are the ones saying our system is weak and will fail and the right wingers are right there with them, nodding their heads along.

They are arguing that for the sake of security we must dismantle the foundation of America. That we must live our lives thinking of how we might offend the terrorists. “If we have the trial in New York City it’ll be a target!” They cry – even though it’s been a target several times over regardless. Can Americans actually do anything to stop terrorists who hate us no matter what we do? What were we doing in 1993 and in 2001 when New York was targeted? Terrorists don’t need reasons, my fair Chicken Little Hawks!

But we get it, Giuliani. We get it, Kirk, Inhofe and Boehner. Terrorists are scary, so we have to act afraid and compromise everything we hold dear to appease them. Maybe al Qaeda will be nicer to us if just kept people indefinitely in Gitmo without a trial rather than practice our way of justice?

But I guess if we did that … to borrow an old Chicken Little Hawk phrase … wouldn’t that mean the terrorists win?

 

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