The true threat to western values, principles and civilization does not come from the underground army currently resisting the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

Nor is it theocratic Iran, even as its rulings Mullahs are now trying to acquire nuclear weapons, or North Korea, which now claims to have such weapons of mass destruction. Nor is it any shadowy group or person that wishes death upon the western infidels.

No, the true enemies of western democracy reside within government halls on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean where politicians of every political stripe restrict basic freedoms and liberties in the name of defending them against these mentioned external threats.

By abandoning the Geneva Convention and exploiting legal loopholes first opened during the Clinton administration, the current Bush administration has turned Guantanamo Bay into a modern-day version of Devil’s Island, off limits to even the International Red Cross.

Many of the camp’s current residents, including Canadian Omar Khadr, are facing serious accusations. But why are terrorism suspects denied judicial due process and, worse, tortured?

The use of torture — sanctioned by top U.S. officials, then exposed by low-level grunts concerned about their legality — has sullied that country’s reputation across the globe.

And if you think I’m just picking on the U.S., consider Canada’s role in the “extraordinary rendition” of its citizen Maher Arar to his native Syria, where he was tortured.

In Germany, where memories of fascism remain alive, the former red-green government expanded police powers. We now also know that former communist countries in Eastern Europe housed — we can only presume for payment — secret CIA prisons in old Soviet-era compounds whose dirty little secrets still remain hidden. The irony of once-oppressed countries striking such a Faustian bargain is delicious, but also deeply depressing.

The latest blow to western values such as due process and presumption of innocence came with the recent news that the current Bush administration spied on American citizens and others despite laws to the contrary.

Domestic spying — both lawfully and unlawfully — is of course common in the self-proclaimed standard bearer for global democracy. JFK spied on Martin Luther King, Jr. The administration of LBJ and later Richard Nixon spied on thousands of students, Vietnam War protesters and civil rights leaders. Nixon went even further, as he used the FBI and CIA to plot against his political enemies. The eventual discovery of these crimes and their cover-up led to the Watergate crisis and Nixon’s resignation in the face of impeachment. The i-word is now once again making the rounds through Washington, D.C. in light of the recent revelations.

While Dubya’s impeachment is perhaps nothing more than a left-wing fantasy divorced from any political reality, the fact that serious people are talking about it speaks to the severity of Bush’s most recent political crimes and misdemeanours. The Clinton impeachment, based on his lies about an illegal sex affair while under oath, certainly set the bar low enough.

But there can be no question that these actions — spying, permitting torture and extraordinary rendition — are extreme cases of policies divorced from ethics. You could argue that torture and spying are necessary albeit unpleasant methods in the fight against terrorism. But I disagree.

Terrorism is a threat, but hardly the kind of threat that poses a risk to the very survival of modern civilization. How many people die daily of AIDS, environmental pollution or hunger, compared to the number of people killed by terrorism? But my final witness against the western leaders who are undermining the very principles they claim to defend is none other than Jean Jacques Rousseau, one of the principle architects of enlightened, western thought.

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