The War on One’s Individual Liberty and Freedoms
Nadira R. Brown
POL 201
Professor Dovie Dawson
April 15, 2013

The War on One’s Individual Liberty and Freedoms Have you ever felt like a piece of cheese on a mouse trap just waiting for that mouse to come by and eat you; maybe even a fly stuck in a spider’s web hoping that you can get away? Well I am sure if I had been one of those people in the mist of the chaos on September 11, 2001 that had changed the life of all Americans’ across the country. I would have felt no bigger than that piece of cheese or that fly caught in the web. We were victims of a horrific terrorist attack that shook the very core of our foundation as a country. Twelve years later we are still recovering from this horrendous act. We have been fighting the war on terror for ten years. This is one of the longest wars that the United States has ever fought. While the war rages on the boundaries between national security and civil liberties are blurred. “The big threat to America is the way we react to terrorism by throwing away what everybody values about our country—a commitment to human rights” (Kennedy, 2007). Individual liberties and freedoms are important since without them one can be held indefinitely. Habeas corpus does not infringe upon a person’s civil liberties. In addition, habeas corpus allows an individual to question why they are being detained and ensures that detainees have a right to a fair trial; it is considered to be one of the foundations of constitutional democracy. First, individual liberties and freedoms are important since without them one can be held indefinitely. Habeas corpus also known as the “great writ of liberty” guarantees that a person who is being held unjustly can go free (Habeas corpus, 2011). This is one of the reasons that make America so great because anyone who is detained can know the reason why