The Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act (aka USA Patriot Act) are just examples of semantics that sell us the illusion that our government is all about protecting us, protecting the American Way of life, and providing us with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The United States Department of War was renamed the Department of Defense in 1949, but why? To whom is the United States defending itself against? I would submit: no one. Whereas, the United States and its proxies has waged war against several countries since 1949 such as North Korea, North Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and a host of others. None of these countries attacked the United States mainland and none had any real intention of doing so. The Department of Defense is a misnomer and should be properly renamed the Department of War. Our soldiers, our materials, our logistics invade other countries, that is war, not defense.
The Department of Homeland Security is something that sounds distinctly Orwellian but unfortunately is also absolutely real, in which the DHS submits that "…has a vital mission: to secure the Nation from the many threats we face." Incredibly, this essential department wasn't created at the time of Washington's first administration, but had to wait until 2002. My goodness, how was the United States able to secure and protect itself against a myriad of threats and actionable offenses for so long without this department! In fact, the DHS is a redundant bureaucracy, serving no useful purpose, and accomplishing little or nothing of merit, while violating the civil rights of its citizens and Constitution it has sworn to uphold and protect. The DHS' ultimate goal is to impose upon its citizens a quasi-police state in order to best protect us from events that are unknowable, undefined, unseen, and ever changing in which every year homeland security is something that is perpetually unsecured.
My most scathing disgust has to do with the Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act (aka USA Patriot Act). This act which purports to combat terrorism is essentially another tool to monitor and surveil our domestic activities. I despise the Patriot act because of their misuse and misallocation of a great word: patriot, which has a profound historic importance in this land of the brave and home of the free. A patriot is a man who stands up unstintingly for truth and justice as Clarence Darrow said: "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." And G.K. Chesterton adds: "“My country, right or wrong,” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”" A patriot's purpose is to do and stand up for the right thing against all odds if need be. A true patriot is a man of integrity, he is neither a summer soldier nor a sunshine patriot, and he is a patriot through-and-through. A nationalist, however, will do whatever it takes in "defense" of his country because his country is always right, always just, and always best, even if all the evidence clearly demonstrates that this is not the case.
"Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry