Billmon writes an essay today on the growth of the police state. It's quite good, and it offers some perspectives on where we've been and where we are going. Please take a moment and read the whole thing.

I found this excerpt to be of interest:

Of course, this potentially sets the scene for the next loop in the downward spiral towards a full-fledged police state. If and when the next terrorist attack comes, the natural response of the national security bureaucracy (and its legal camp followers) will be to insist the tragedy never would have happened if it had been given access to all the data it wanted, all the money it needed, and all the investigative powers it demanded. It’ll be the fighting-with-one-hand-tied-behind-our-back argument, re-imported from Iraq. And who’s going to say no when another major American landmark is a smoldering ruin?

Indeed.

It seems that we've come to the point in our development as a country where we've now come to expect that "shit doesn't happen".

I remember a corporate training I went through a number of years ago. It was a management safety training course and with the philosophy of "there are no such thing as accidents". All industrial accidents had causes, and it was the job (and fault if they didn't) of the company to remove all possible causes. Of course this was driven by the incredibly high premiums for insurance rather than concern for employees. I thought at the time that it seemed rather odd that there would be no excuses for an accident occurring. Sure, all accidents have a cause. And of course we should work to minimize causes. But isn't also the case that sometimes, just occasionally, unforseen shit happens? Afterall, we're human aren't we? By definition, isn't it inevitable that we'll be imperfect? The natural universe is both well-ordered and chaotic, all at once. Can human beings remove all the chaos?

Our approach to national security and particularly the "Great War on Terror" seems to fall into this category. Billmon is exactly right about his assessment of another terrorist attack. When it happens (not if, as I think it's a foregone conclusion because terrorism has been such an effective strategy against the supermilitary; it's an effective tactic to put us in our place and is the barbarians vs. the Romans redux), there will be no excuses. The people will expect to be perfectly protected and will turn against any leaders who fail to do so. And our leaders know that. Being the political animals they are, there will indeed be the continuing demand for more authority with the resulting continued erosion of our civil rights. I think it's inevitable.

The only bright spot in my view of our civil liberties future is that if we get leadership in our country that really fights the war on terror with the proper tools. Understanding that you don't win hearts and minds at the end of the barrel of a gun is our savior. Re-establishing our place in the international community as a player with conscience and respect for the rule of law is essential. But any such endeavor will take time. Given the wrecking ball of the Bush administration, it will take a lot of time.

Probably too much time to avoid another attack.

So we civil libertarians will need to continue to stem the tide. But perhaps we also need to look at ourselves and our expectations. Perhaps our fear of our shadows, as outlined quite nicely in Michael Moore's movie "Bowling For Columbine" is an area that needs to be addressed.

And that leads to a whole other discussion on many fronts.