A Less Perfect Union by Etzioni, Essay Example

A Less Perfect Union by Etzioni, Amitai was written with the purpose of informing the public of the nuclear threat to the United States and the holes in the legal system that provide unlimited access to evidence to the terrorists that should be reconsidered without restriction upon human rights law. The controlling idea of the article is for the legislature to revamp the system to allow terrorists the same rights as law abiding citizens such as due process but put some restrictions to their access to evidence and security clearance issues such as attorneys with such access in order to protect the security of our nation.

Citizens of the United States enjoy the privileges of a free country and depend on the government to protect them from criminal activity and forces of terrorism; isn’t that what makes our nation such a great place to reside? People are free to make choices, free to speak, free to reside, have freedom of autonomy and expect to live in a fearless society within reason. Citizens help to protect their freedom by choosing to live in safe neighbourhoods by paying higher prices for homes, purchase in home security devices, contribute to police forces and have neighbourhood watches. Further, the citizen’s vote for sheriff races and president races for the best candidate that they feel will uphold their constitutionality rights and protect their freedoms as afforded by the US Constitution.

When terrorists invade our freedom by coming into our country legally or illegally and bomb our nation citizens feel that their security has been breached and rightfully so especially when terrorists strike major buildings like the Twin Towers that are major landmarks to our community.

The US law states that terrorists should be granted the same legal rights as the US citizens which include the due process including a right to a fair and speedy trial and right to an attorney if they cannot afford one. Is this right? Well, if the US would not practise what it preached then we would not be a democratic nation would we? Amitai speaks about affording the terrorists the same inalienable rights as other citizens but putting restrictions on the rights they are afforded such as right to evidence and right to have attorney’s with security clearance. This would be a good practise. After all, the terrorists are the ones that are causing the problems in our nation aren’t they? I firmly believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty and with that said a person should have the right to legal representation but lets face it, there has to be some right of protection for the security of our country and protecting our country after the terroristic attack has occurred is not the way to meet these demands, as Etizioni states, “However, in the case of massive terrorism, especially nuclear terrorism, the goal must be to prevent an attack before it occurs (2007).  Etzioni states, “We are not suggesting to deny terrorists their human rights nor or we suggesting to start a 100 year war (2007).” “Our citizens rely on the state for their national security and any major part of that security is violated citizens will lose their sense of security in their leader and political institutions”, says Etzioni (2007).

Hence when some scholars disagree with the opinion that nuclear threat is not a major issue to the United States I would vehemently beg to differ on the premise that though the United States is the leading nation with powerful arms to take on any nation, we are also the most hated country especially by the third world countries and these countries do not always think with rational means when making decisions. If the United States were to ever let their guard down at any point and time and allow these countries to gain an upper hand we might be attacked by nuclear weapons. It is only the fear of counter-attack that prevents these countries from attacking. It is quite evident that the traumas suffered under the Taliban are very real indeed. Unconventional weapon spread will always remain a threat to the US and any country as long as there is extreme radicalism present in the world.

References

Etzioni, A. (2007) Amitai Etzioni Notes Retrieved October 12, 2009 from, http://blog.amitaietzioni.org/2007/06/a_less_perfect_.html

Etziion, A. (2007) A Less Perfect Union Retrieved October 12, 2009 from, http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/etzioni/documents/A373-ALessPerfectUnion.pdf