The Jack Bauer America

Some of the best discussions I have with BJay happen just as I’m about to drop off to sleep. I suspect he thinks that I’ll more readily agree with him when I’m sleepy. About a week ago B decided to start an interesting political discussion that involved Jack Bauer, John McCain, The US policy on torture, and the perception of America in the world. When I’m awake I’m all over this stuff. BJay is a bit more to the left than I am, so I generally love to annoy him by disagreeing with whatever idea he has formed by listening to NPR. I don’t remember where BJay said he heard John McCain talking about how the world felt about the United States after WWII. Trying to find a twice paraphrased quote on John McCain would take a century, but B was impressed with the idea that John McCain wanted to get the world’s opinion of America back to what it was after WWII–When the Nazis wanted to surrender to the Americans rather than the Russians because the Americans were much more humane. Did I fight the urge to shoot this idea down? I don’t know if I did. I was sleepy. No I did, I muttered something about how the US wasn’t a world power then, and we didn’t have as much personally at stake as the Europeans did with the Nazis. And then the conversation turned to the ethicacy of torture. And B had heard some quote from…sheesh… I think it was a senator?? Having a discussion about how far do we go in the interest of national security. And then he went on to describe a plot line from 24 where some terrorists are going to detonate a nuclear weapon unless we stop them, and how far do we go to get information to stop that from happening. And isn’t it insane that a television show is influencing the discussions of law makers on such a real issue? Yeah, I said. But I of course couldn’t resist even in a sleepy haze to say the television show 24, specifically the character Jack Bauer has only brought torture to light in a way that feels personal. He’s going after these evil guys like the ones who crashed planes into the world trade center and the pentagon. Maybe Jack Bauer was born out of the ash of 9-11, from our collective anger, fear and love of America. He isn’t real, but he came from somewhere or he wouldn’t resonate with so many people. I was checking to see how many people have thought about Jack Bauer’s influence on popular culture and I was intrigued by this article, although its over a year old.

“For weeks, Democrats and their media allies have been on Bush’s case for using the National Security Agency to intercept, without warrant, phone calls and e-mails to terror suspects abroad. Before that, Bush was charged with using secret detention centers in Eastern Europe to interrogate suspects. Before that, the military was accused of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan. Before that, the Justice Department was charged with violating the civil rights of Jose Padilla and the Shoe-bomber.

Bush thus stands accused of violating the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war, ignoring constitutional protections of U.S. citizens, and violating international agreements prohibiting torture and the “rendition” of prisoners to countries where torture is practiced.

Where do the American people stand?

The left may be right on the law, but the people seem to be standing by Bush. Believing the character of this war, where the enemy’s preferred tactic is to slaughter civilians with terror bombings, people seem to agree that we have to follow Jack Bauer’s rules, not American Civil Liberties Union rules.

Yet one senses that Americans are conflicted. We want to think of ourselves as decent people who fight wars honorably. But we believe the enemies of 9-11 are so evil, so depraved, they forfeit the right to be treated honorably. And while we believe in constitutional rights, human rights, civil rights, Miranda warnings and all that, we also believe in winning our wars. For without victory in the war on terror, freedom may not survive.

“Success alone justifies war,” said Von Moltke, as Germany prepared to violate Belgium’s neutrality to outflank France in 1914. Americans appear to believe that, too.

President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and blockaded Southern ports, without congressional authorization. President Wilson locked up Eugene V. Debs in World War I and never let him out. FDR interned 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans in relocation camps, in a wartime act of racial profiling approved by the Supreme Court. Truman dropped atom bombs on defenseless cities, killing 100,000 women and children. Yet all are judged by liberal historians to be great or near-great presidents.”

So this is interesting to me. If Jack Bauer represents some American wild-west type of vigilante hero, why is he also popular in Afghanistan? (I heard that on NPR.) And why is George Bush so unpopular? I guess you can’t be a rogue agent AND the president of the United States. I get a kick out of Colbert making light of the fact that most conservatives hate John McCain, although we don’t understand why. Its so weird that McCain has the nomination locked up when most republicans I know say they will never vote for him. How did that happen? Isn’t it interesting though, that the Jack Bauer universe introduced the first Black President of the United States…and its looking more and more like that is going to be our future reality?