McCain's War for Security

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

The New York Times Magazine had a feature story on 
Senator McCain a week or two ago which covered in
detail his personal, military and political history and his
heroic struggle to meet the high standards set by his 
admiral father, the Navy and individual ethics. 

His long imprisonment by the North Vietnamese due to 
a refusal to be released as the well-known son of a 
prominent admiral was cited as an example of his 
duty to to put national interests above his own.

This iconic treatment of a national hero is worth pondering
for the way it reveals what Tim calls "the fix is in."

The imposition of protective measures often occurs through
those with impeccable credentials, especially by appealing to 
the ones who believe that their special role is to rise above ordinary 
struggles and dispense exceptional wisdom, fairness and
justice.

The question on McCain is: has he been sold on the threat to 
national security of cryptography by appealing to his deep 
patriotism, his belief in a special duty to protect the nation, to 
fight its "war" with the day's enemies.

Such feeding of grandiloquence is historical practice of the
Richlieus running the government, raiding the till, commanding 
the academies, distributing authorizations to placate antsy 
kings-in-queue.

The cariacature of this are "banana republics" where
military and political saviors justify coups in the name
of the "public interest," or "the people," fairly well in accord
with threats to authority.

Military, naval and governmental academies worldwide teach this
belief in the special duty of public servants, notwithstanding the
evidence that some graduates reap the not-so-public rewards.

As amply displayed in S.936, the National Defense Authorization
Act for FY 1998, the perennial US banana republic raid on
the till. 

Read it to see who McCain thinks are the nation's enemies and 
protectors and who are the supreme judges of both.

What's not as well publicized about leadership academies of all
kinds is that they also teach (and practice) the Machiavellian wisdom 
of most stringent laws and harshest enforcement for challenges to 
the authority to govern, to tax, to command, to rule. To assure 
"national security" for those who thrive on it.