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Constitutional scholars agree, when war strikes, one of the early causalities is freedom.  It is not a simple platitude but a realistic assessment of what even the most liberal society comes to realize quite quickly in wartime, you can't be foolish and hand your enemy the crown jewels and expect to hold out in the battle.  This briefing explores known losses in the U.S. as well as explores what might be coming down the road.

Big Brother Finally Here?

This headline has been seen semi-annually since the year 2001 rolled by without much interest in George Orwell's classic predictions for our future.  Did the Big Brother era arrive and we didn't notice, were we too involved in our own daily strife that annoying commute, getting the kids to the baseball game, or flying across the country to a meeting -- that we just haven't noticed what has happened to our freedoms?

Then on 9/11, our over liberalized, kick back and "enjoy what you can" attitude took a big hit in the stomach, a K.O. that could have finished the fight.  Not remarkable to any historian, the American laid back culture turned fierce in the hours after pain was replaced with anger and that anger still brews throughout the nation.  Europeans knew, many saying in private meetings "Uhh-Oh.  The Yanks are coming!"

In the aftermath of America's wake up call, reminding us the world is not a nice place yet, rapid changes have occurred in our civil liberties.  Armed National Guardsman at our airports are just starting to be phased out.  We had them patrolling bridges and other key infrastructures throughout the nation.  Combat air patrols over American soil, an expensive and useful exercise ensured air-to-air response time was up to meeting the new threat of an airliner being used as a guided missile.  As these two are starting to wind down, MILNET wondered what other changes have occurred and if they are winding down too or have new incursions into American Civil Rights stuck for at least for months to come.

An infamous MILNET table explores the Civil Rights changes, some uncodified by law but enacted by an abundance of caution.  Most, you will see deal with airports -- an obvious result of the method used in the 9/11 massacres.
 

© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET

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