I agree that your comments have some merit.

I believe the last paragraph in this post, covers my thoughts on this matter pretty well. Too often in recent times we have found our civil liberties being sacrificed for dubious security gains. Too often in recent times we have found our American government acting like the very enemies they are supposedly defending us against in the methods they advocate in protecting our country from those enemies.

The price of freedom can be very high in a free society, however, that price must never include the very freedom that is being defended. The idea of taking freedom away to save it puts me in mind of an economic tactic we are hearing bandied about today by the Obama administration; that of our nation spending its way into prosperity.

“The president and legislators must never forget that it is a free society they are supposed to be defending.”

I’m willing to lay money down that had we completed the tasks that needed to be completed during GWB’s terms, we would have seen the rights restored.

There are some things that have to be done for the sake of security during war times. Similar things were done during WWI and the Spanish-American War and (dare I say it?) the Civil War. Not identical, because technology was at a different level, but similar.

For those of us who believe that there is imminent danger in the form of terrorists, globally, saying nothing incriminating on my cellphone or in my e-mail is not a problem. During WWI and WWII, there was censorship – major censorship – of mail to and from the war zones – as in words blacked out or even cut out of letters.

There were some complaints, but people generally seemed to understand what was going on and what needed to be done. Loose lips sink ships. Telling what area one was being sent to could have alerted the enemy to troop movements.

Why is it so many people are unable to translate that to today’s world and technology? In WWII, our e-mails would have been censored! Our cell-phone as well as land-line conversations would have been listened in on and any possible breaches of security would have brought the Feds down on us like a duck on a June bug.

I’m willing to wait for the hostilities to be over before I start screaming about my “rights” to privacy.