8 BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
We should be concerned about preserving our liberties. Without
our liberties, other attempts at preserving the quality of
our lives will be hollow, if not quite difficult.
If we don’t defend our Constitution and Bill of Rights, we will ultimately
have nothing. These are our guarantees; they are precious,
and our dedication to these concepts is what makes us true patriots.
The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are our very protection from
totalitarianism. And a government out of control, and paranoid is a
government that desperately wants to get even more control, often
through the only means available to those without power—by instilling
fear.
We should not stand aside while we are told that compromising
our rights as citizens is in our best interest in the name of security.
The implication here is, without giving up our rights, we will not be
secure and protected by our government from the invisible enemy,
known today as the terrorist. But, without personal sovereignty, national
sovereignty cannot last long.
Our rights are spelled out in the founding documents of this nation,
the United States of America. These rights are indivisible. They
cannot be divided or edited for the benefit of any special interest or
even for the government. Period. But, that is precisely what has been
happening gradually for years, and is now advancing with a missionlike
quality. It is your freedom on the line. And you and I must defend
our rights to deserve the sweet bounty of freedom. You don’t need to
enlist in the military or fight a war to protect America. Defending
your rights and liberties is even more important—without them,
America won’t be worth defending.
Terrorism is a convenient concept for intimidating us into cooperation.
Historically, crime has been effectively used the same way. The
fear of the “baddies,” and jail, helps to keep the general populace in
line, and the taxpayer is happy to oblige. Federal taxes were not even a
reality until 1913 when the Internal Revenue Service was created. And
then, citizens of the day were told, among other things, it was only a
temporary measure to finance the war machine, and would be abolished
soon thereafter. That was a lie and an excuse, and it worked. We
have been in the government’s clutches ever since.
A person could conceivably feel compelled and justified to “voluntarily”
pay taxes if the funds were responsibly used to run the government
in the best interests of the citizens of the country. Today, half
of your earnings are going to taxes—local, state, and federal. But, are
the billions of dollars in revenues wisely spent? Is your opinion even
asked, or for that matter, considered?
Let’s see. Were our massive intelligence agencies able to stop an
attack in New York City on September 11, 2001? Tremendous intelligence
and surveillance was in place and working hard prior to this
historic date. In fact, we didn’t need to have a terrorist attack of this
magnitude to justify surveillance on foreigners and citizens—it was
already being done. But now it is justified and is being sold to us as
not only legal, but in our best interests.
This wonderful intelligence continues today, costing even more
billions, and it cannot guarantee that we have any additional personal
security. However, we are not only asked, but expected to give up our
personal rights and liberties as some kind of righteous cause to save
the nation.
Before we went to war with Iraq in 2003, it was clear that Iran and
North Korea were serious threats. They had made real strides in developing
weapons of mass destruction and would have the capability
to deliver these weapons in a matter of time. But rather than take on
either of these countries, we went after Saddam Hussein. Why? We are
told the decision was based on reliable intelligence information. Reliable?
Furnished to us by the Central Intelligence Agency—the same
people who failed to bring us the plot to take down the World Trade
Towers.
Today, we are faced with serious problems coming from Iran,
North Korea, and elsewhere. As for Iraq, well, are things better because
we went in? I, for one, don’t really know, but I am hard pressed
to think so.
At the time, we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
and that going to war in Iraq would help to preserve American
freedom. That sounded good. After the war was underway, and after
we discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction, the
sales pitch changed. We were reminded that we were there to preserve
“Iraqi freedom.” Sounds like a bait-and-switch tactic, and not even a
sophisticated one.
The problem is, the Iraqi people weren’t really free to begin with,
not with Saddam in business; but now we are to believe it is the American
taxpayers’ responsibility to pay for a war, put the nation trillions
of dollars in debt, and waste thousands of American lives and the lives
of others to save “Iraqi freedom.” What happened to our freedom?
After the job we did on Hussein in 1990, it is difficult to believe
that he could have amassed the materials and means to become
a nuclear threat in the world without our detection via the
massive intelligence-gathering apparatus we have spent jillions to
support. And, I might remind the reader that this was after we gave
the intelligence agencies unlimited power and increased funding.
So, perhaps more money and more power does not equal more security
for Americans.
However, six weeks after 9/11, the Patriot Act was passed. As previously
mentioned, this document basically boils down to the Anti-
Constitution of the United States of America, and in this 342-page
document that was not read by most members of Congress before they
signed it, our rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution have been effectively
nullified. And, worse yet, a third of this document is about
money, not terrorists—but your money.
Under the guise of anti-money-laundering, the government has
devised a way to criminalize anyone they feel like pursuing, complete
with extreme criminal and civil penalties if convicted. The legislation
that was incorporated into the Patriot Act can be used effectively
against the average citizen. But, even before you go to jail—and to
add insult to injury, as they say—without the necessity for due process
of law on your side, all your assets can be confiscated. Before you get
to court, you could be penniless and unable to afford a lawyer, because
all your worldly wealth has been taken away from you. Does this
sound like America, or like another country from the pages of history?
And what happened to personal sovereignty?
This is not my personal crusade. An awareness of these issues is
now growing with vigor in the United States. Urgent countermeasures
are required to meet the challenges presented today if we are to prevent
the further decline and possibly the fall of the United States of
America, or minimally, the loss of our own personal, individual soverbarb_
eignty. Outspoken and undaunted people such as former Congressman
Robert E. Bauman, JD, author of some straightforward books on
these topics, are contributing to the awareness and the truth about
what is really taking place in the United States today. Mr. Bauman is
also legal counsel to a worthy effort known as the Sovereign Society,
chaired by investment advisor and author John Pugsley. And, as a former
Congressman, Bauman knows firsthand about the machinations
of Washington.
The fight not only seems to be external—real threats and manufactured
ones—but also is attacking from within—insidious attempts
to strip us of our personal rights. It has come from all directions recently
and we are bombarded on a regular basis—the effects of which
promise to leave us with nothing.
Our situation is reminiscent of the Roman Empire on the verge
of collapse. As great a civilization as it proved to be, it could not
overcome the external and internal pressures that began to work on
it daily during its evolution. The events today threaten to undermine
our entire society, too, and may contribute to the collapse of global
civilization. It wouldn’t be the first time it has happened on this
planet.
Not only are we faced with change due to adverse negative effects
from foreign enemies, but worse, we are confronted with our own
complacency.
We have empowered the bureaucrats with our tax money and our
willingness to give them unbridled control over us at the federal
level, rather than take responsibility into our own hands, at the local
level, where true democracy lives. The politicians are telling us what
we want to hear to appease the savage beasts, that is to say “we the
people . . .” We have always possessed the power to keep government
in check and accountable. Instead we seem poised to accept the
big lies.
The Roman Empire collapsed under its own weight of ineptness
and corrupt leadership—that and a presumptuous society. The once
vibrant Roman economy was destroyed, law and order had disintegrated,
and many of the educational institutions had vanished. And,
with a little effort from its enemies, the barbarians stood at the gates
to Rome and banged their way in. There wasn’t much to stop them
when the final days came. It was the collapse of a great civilization
and it took humankind a thousand years to recover from the event. In
the end, their demise was swift.
The U.S. Government Guide to Surviving Terrorism (New York:
Barnes & Noble, 2003) is a compilation of official U.S. government
documents addressing the subject. It is essentially a survival guide for
Americans on how to live through and cope with the effects of terrorism.
In the introduction to the manual by H. Keith Melton from the
Center for Counterterrorism Studies, he closes with the following
paragraph:
Is the terrorist threat “real enough” that extraordinary measures for survival
may be necessary? The answer is an unqualified “yes!” Communication intercepts
about impending terrorist attacks against the United States and her allies
are received daily. The question is not if future attacks will occur, but rather
when and where the next attack will happen. If you don’t take precautions, you
may become a victim! You’ve been wise enough to purchase this manual. Now,
use it thoughtfully and deliberately to prepare each member of your family with
the information they will need to survive.
It appears that the U.S. government recognizes that the barbarians
are near, which brings us to the proverbial crossroads. Whether
there is time to make a difference, or whether we have the inclination
to try to change the course of our country, there is one thing
we must do immediately. We must decide, while we still have the
semblance of personal sovereignty, what action we will take into our
own hands.
As citizens, we have an obligation to preserve our national sovereignty.
And how, you ask, can this be accomplished? By starting with the
problem. We must downsize the bureaucratic machine that has taken
over our lives. I hope that this book will give you some inspiration.
Meanwhile, as free people, we also have the inherent right to protect
ourselves from the ravages of time and the prevailing winds of
change that threaten our personal existence. And, as a sovereign individual,
first and foremost, your right and obligation is to yourself and
your family, and that right is the greater right, and more important
than that of national sovereignty. Maybe that is why 250,000 patriotic
Americans are choosing to leave the country every year—because they
still can, and they know they must. Only free people can make a choice
like that.
So, let’s set sail, and together explore the blue seas of your offshore
options.