to celebrate the 230th birthday of the united states, juan cole is having a little holiday contest. can you identify how many of the complaints which thomas jefferson and his fellow signatories leveled against king george and britain in the declaration of independence could be leveled against george bush and his administration by current american and/or iraqi citizens?
the first one on jefferson's list is easy:
| he has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good |
this complaint against the department of homeland security is oddly comical in its archaic construction:
| he has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance |
while these offenses of the military occupation should be familiar to the iraqis:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
- for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us
- for protecting them, by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states
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and these offenses familiar to the anonymous captives at guantanamo bay and hidden elsewhere in once-abandoned gulags scattered around the globe.
- for depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury
- for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences
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jefferson's list is quite long. for now, the rest of king george's crimes i leave to you.
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