The government is creating a police state to threaten future generations of non-white people. And we should be rubbing our chins and considering how best to surrender to terrorism, because the war we were told would take years to prosecute hasn’t ended in time for the new season of “Sex in the City.”

Let’s see, what else… Oh, if you supported the Afghanistan invasion after Al Qaeda operatives flew civilian planes into large US buildings, you’re part of a “pro-war mob” that wouldn’t know a raincloud from a lukewarm shower with a cartoonist, or an umbrella from a bunch of screaming Asians fleeing a giant Claymation lizard (or something like that)…

At least, so says Tom Tomorrow:

So, in Sunday’s New York Times, we learn, in an almost offhand manner, that the war in Afghanistan was pretty much a complete failure, at least as judged by the administration’s own purported goals.

‘Classified investigations of the Qaeda threat now under way at the F.B.I. and C.I.A. have concluded that the war in Afghanistan failed to diminish the threat to the United States, the officials said. Instead, the war might have complicated counterterrorism efforts by dispersing potential attackers

across a wider geographic area.‘

Will the pro-war mob take a step back, grow reflective, think to themselves, hmmm — they were not entirely honest with us. Perhaps we should not be so trusting…?

Nah. New wars are always — as either Shaw or Dr. Johnson famously said of second marriages — the triumph of optimism over experience. It’s Charlie Brown running up to the football, imagining that this time it won’t be pulled away. This time I’m sure they’re telling the truth! we think to ourselves, and someone, somewhere pays the price of our naivite in the coin of carnage and blood.

And speaking of that wonderful American spirit of clear-eyed optimism unaffected by experience or knowledge, you’ve probably seen this by now, just the latest in a long, long series of revelations of ways in which the FBI and CIA have abused their authority over the years. You’d think this one might be worth contemplating as well, as these agencies are given sweeping new powers and leeway. But, you know the refrain by now: That was several years ago! That could never happen now!

Sure. And monkeys are going to fly out of my butt, to quote those eminent fin-de-siecle philosophers, Wayne and Garth. Or, as Santayana put it with somewhat more subtlety, he who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it.

Years down the road, there will, of course, be revelations of abuses, dirty tricks, careers and lives destroyed. But the thing is, nice middle class white people are unlikely to be on the receiving end of any of this, so it will be quite easy for most of you to turn your heads and look away, to deny that any of it is happening. And once again, our ideals as a nation, the depth of our commitment to our principles, will have been tested, and found lacking.

‘In times of war, laws are silent,’ as Rehnquist himself points out in this link (forwarded by my pal Wil).

I know, I know. A lot of you are sitting out there thinking, Sheesh! What an alarmist! And to be honest, I hope you are right. I hope I’m so far off base that it embarasses me to re-read these words a decade from now. But there is this small problem of the past as prologue, of learning from the examples of history rather than somehow believing that the world is created anew each day, and there are no lessons to be drawn from anything that has gone before. I know that when I wake up in the morning and there are storm clouds in the sky, I should probably take an umbrella with me when I go out. I know that the hot water in my shower comes out scalding, and if I do not mix in the appropriate amount of cold water, I will get burned. I know that if I don’t take my dog for a run in the park in the morning, he will be a distraction for the rest of the day.

And I know that zealously conservative law-‘n-order administrations will trample the rights of dissidents and the powerless like Godzilla taking a mid-day stroll through downtown Tokyo — particularly if no one speaks out, or if those who do are simply dismissed as whining Chomskyites, crazy alarmists, no need to pay attention to them.

Because this time, we can trust the government. This time it’s different.

Sure.

Okay, Tommy. You win. “Brave dissent” noted. Willingness to question “our ideals as a nation” and “the depth of our commitment to our principles” (and the guts to find them “lacking”), check.

Thanks for speaking out. Voices like yours have been silenced far too long (well, except in popular websites or syndicated comic strips, I mean). You’re Fonda in 12 Angry Men. You save us from ourselves. Bravo!

Now go draw me a funny picture or something. And take that 3rd Generation Star Trek dork with you.