Death to Americans, but not to America

I saw Death of a President on the weekend. It was good. It was, actually, really scary.

For me, it was a reminder that the rule of law is still, sadly, only as strong as the resolve of the man/woman who holds the authority under it. When that resolve is weak, usual protocols are ignored which may save a life (lives) or worse still - undermine the rule entirely.

The film did an excellent job of reminding me of two things - America, despite is fluid composition and growing Muslim populations is still rabidly anti-Muslim in its exacting application of the law. It is as if, through fiction, we are reminded of how imprecise the most deliberate and documented processes are. No matter how many times you tell a border guard "skin tone is not probable cause" it still seems to end up that way. That may not seem like insight to you, but when was the last time you actually noticed someone getting harassed by a cop and thought, "I wonder if is has anything to do with...hey, look a squirrel with a puffy tail." Chances are it is starting to filter down into your subconscious and soon, you won't even notice it anymore.

The second thing the film reminded me of was just how frail the rule of law is. One bullet, total anarchy until someone can find a federal court judge. Maybe we should just appoint a federal court judge to follow the VP around. That said, the more "official" reports I read/see about 9/11, the more I see things that the VP ordered - and I wonder to myself - "under what constitutional authority does this guy get to do anything but break ties?"

Reflecting on the film, I asked myself "Self, it seems that most of the time the U.S. is just rolling with the punches, and it never seems to be prepared to respond to anything?"

Of course, like former CIA Director Porter Goss once said "You never know when we succeed, just when we don't." Of course, that isn't true, we just don't find out for 50 years.

Government ingenuity is selective in its efficiency - the Americans have always been very successful at immediately devising and implementing new ways of killing lots of people. I am reminded that it took just 34 months for the Manhattan Project to progress from the creation of the town of Oak Ridge in the Tennessee wilderness to the atomic explosion at Alamogordo, N.M.

That is what America accomplishes when it is serious.

So, what does it accomplish when it isn't serious?