Excerpt from my new book Strip Mall Patriotism

Without much resistance, the Patriot Act became law, torture became a key tool in fighting the war on terror, and the president justified wiretapping without the requisite due process or congressional oversight.

Yet, the war on terror remains a war that only requires sacrifice from a few. The spigot is wide open with a ceaseless flow of tax cuts for the wealthiest, but the flow has dried up when it comes to services for those who need help most. The president believes he can unilaterally determine any policy that is remotely related to a war that has no definable end. And he does so without regard for the rule of law. It is hard to imagine such policies being tolerated by a people committed to democratic values.

We have long passed the point of moral self-reflection, when the commander in chief can brazenly state that he ordered wiretaps on US soil, justifying them with the notion that the rule of law is trumped by the war on terror.

How long can we remain content believing that 9/11 changed everything? Was the impact of 9/11 so great that we now believe that the president is above the law? If so, those of us in dissent owe George Bush and Dick Cheney an apology. Moreover, we would also need to declare Osama bin Laden the victor.

Time is the only antidote to fear-based emotionalism. And the farther we get from 9/11, the more clearly we can see how much our democratic traditions have needlessly been relinquished.

Nowhere in the texts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers can one find justification for bad intelligence leading to preemptive war, for torture policies, or for domestic wiretapping without obtaining a warrant.  There is not a collective understanding as to how this all occurred.

The post-9/11 experience should remind us that a democratic nation never has the luxury of putting its values on autopilot. We entrusted the president with keeping us safe, and in the process, with few exceptions, we promised not to question.

This may have been one of the great Faustian bargains in US history: absolute power in return for the perception of absolute safety. That is not how democracies work. Unlike totalitarian regimes, they require a constant commitment to the values they proclaim.

As George Bernard Shaw stated, “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” And we deserve better, much better than what we have demanded. Post-9/11 fear and hubris must be replaced by courage and humility.

Yet, in spite of my polemic sensibilities, I maintain that Iraq has the potential to be a great moment in American history. I am quite certain this statement, on its surface, will be received with bewilderment and absurdity. And if I were referring to some way America could pull moral victory out of the quagmire of defeat, such a response would be justified indeed.