Can cons tell me specifically what freedoms you've lost to terrorists?

Question

I'm always hearing "they hate us for our freedoms", and "what rights have you personally lost?"

Please explain how one is worth going to war over, and the other one is "no big deal"?

Answer 1

Lost none to the terrorists, lost a few to our government in the name of security though.

If the goal of the terrorists was to eliminate our freedoms, then our government has given them what they want.

Answer 2

I am a conservative and I used to be a Repulbican. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not anything anymore because both parties have now abandoned the idea of less government and more freedom. I've not yet seen a personal difference from the Patriot Act, because I don't make overseas calls and I don't care who looks at my internet activity. I've not yet seen a personal difference from all of the smoking laws, because I'm not a smoker. I've not yet seen a personal difference from the no-trans-fat law in New York, because I've never been there. The problem is that all of this is leading up to a "Nanny State," where big brother watches and listens to everything you do, tells you what to eat, what to drink, how to discipline your children, what time to go to bed, and how to dress. Each small step doesn't seem like much, but it has already begun to snowball and shows no sign of stopping. We have to stop now or there will be no turning back. ADDITION: In addition to jesito_sascec's answer: Even if you trust the current administration to just use the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, what about future administrations? As has been pointed out, the Nazis and Socialists were trusted to only use their power for good when it was granted to them. We no longer live in a Republic. I don't know what form of government we have anymore.

Answer 3

Try going to the airport and you'll find out what we lost.

Having to check in 90 minutes early
No razors, lighters, or sharp objects
Have to buy and e-ticket 24 hrs. in advance
May loose your seat if you name appears on a terrorist watch list

Answer 4

All I see above is the conservatives attacking the asker for being "liberal". We've noticed this trend all of us regulars here that basically anyone whose pro bush slanders anyone who disagrees with them as liberal and socalist and anyone who disagrees with bush calls anyone who disagrees with them as neoconservative
most regulars are trying to have a real dialouge

the brian says we got attacked so its reason to go to war with afganistan

ok well, in 2001 we did go to eliminate the taliban government because it was sponsoring terrorism,
no one disagreed with that decision did they?

ruth above talks about how liberals have to come up with some list of what rights were taken away

Well,

heres my list,

and I'm not even sure I'm affected,

With the wiretapping being run by the executive branch in secret, we run the risk of losing our fourth amendment right.

The General in change of the NSA discussed this in front of the Washington Press club or detroit economic club, I don't remember which,

but basically he was talking about the 4th amendment protects against unreasonable search and siezure, but not reasonable search and siezure,

So essentially, while I'm all for being protected and kept safe, and for use of technology to determine if theres a potential for attack, we agree as a nation we have a right to privacy that government can and certainly should take away if there is a reasonable cause for search,


I think in other words, if you wanna listen to my phone call, you have to have a good reason,

what I see going on is we don't know who is being bugged and for how long,

What should probably happen here for this to be Constitutional is the President orders an agency to do this type of bugging, such as NSA,

Then the NSA goes to the NSA oversight committee of the senate or the house or both,

says here is the list of people we listened to and for how long,

Anyone who was arrested there needs to be an arrest warrant, which should come from a judge,

under FISA or whatever that law is from the 70s government could arrest and had to get a warrant within 72 hours,

we were told by the spin machine that this wasn't enough time.

The rhetoric from the left is there has only been 3 warrants denied since the 1977 creation of FISA or whatever its called,

I think the bottom line is, for me, last night I heard a plane, and of course I immediately had the fear of what happens if this is a repeat of 9-11, but i sorta after 30 seconds settled down,

overall the President has taken advantadge of this war which is a legitimate war to do this wiretapping,

there has been evidence that this has been done in secret, the attorney general did not go to Congress, we've got the general of the NSA argueing that he is not in violation of the 4th amendment ,

it harkens to star wars part 2 where the emporer is granted emergency powers and he gives his speech, where he says how he loves democracy and intends to put back these powers to the legislature as soon as possible,

in the story of course the emporer and vadar reign forever till luke kills them in the end,

in real life, I do believe the President and most people in government don't want to abuse the constitution or the wiretaping, I believe most want to keep us safe and do want to do the right thing and the legal thing,

I think the problem here is without the proper oversights in place there is a risk of abuse,

what precautions are right and proper to avoid this abuse should be open to the congress to review and approve or dissapprove,

so we hear rumors of bugging of political enemies and we just know this is unnacceptable and an abuse,

theres lots of questions,

theres lots of secrecy,

we see camp rhino in cuba, that opens up a whole can of worms,

we see the supreme court ruling in hamdi vs rumsfeld in 2004

-

ultimately, the terrorists have created this new normalcy for how government behaves, and while this new normalcy might be good and proper and legal, I think we the people simply demand the proper oversight exist and that there be equal participation between congress and the executive and the judiciary,

the conservatives will counter with will you darn liberals well leak it to the media and the terrorists,

the liberals will counter with will scooter libby

then conservatives will counter with well the ambassador introduced his wife as the cia agent

its a distraction

like little children we play these games

here on yahoo and on tv and in the halls of work and on talk radio

Who do we trust at the head of government?

In 2004 by a narrow margin President Bush was re-elected. If there has been wrong doing then there will be whistle blowers and they will call foul.

Who will America entrust with the Executive in 2008 for 2009?

Answer 5

I lost the freedom to fly without taking my shoes off. Many lost their lives on 9/11. We have the freedom to drink beer, and not point our butts in the air 5 times a day.

I think it's worth it!

Answer 6

I have lost no rights to the terrorists. I would say the fact that a group of terrorists crashed planes into 3 buildings on American soil and one was forced into the ground in Pennsylvania is reason enough to go to war in Afghanistan.......

Answer 7

I am tired of "they hate us for our freedom". They hate us, but that's not the reason.

I do agree with Brian about Afghanistan though.

Answer 8

It is the Liberals complaining about losing their Constitutional rights because of the Patriot Act, which was enacted to protect the US from terrorists. The same Liberals who fail to explain which rights they've lost.

Nevertheless, if Liberals truly feel they've lost rights, perhaps they should be pointing the finger at the terrorists.

Instead, we get US Liberals asking questions like this. To answer: I don't really care why the terrorists hate the US. They do. And they do not differentiate between Conservatives and Liberals, btw.

Answer 9

It hard to ask the dead from 9/11, USS Cole Bombing, U.S. Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania, 1993 WTC Bombing and Yemen Marine Base bombing what kind of freedoms they lost. Not to mention all the victims of suicide bombers, car bombers, beheaders, and other victims of Muslim terrorists throughout the world to ask them what kind of freedoms they lost too.

Answer 10

Freedom from fear.