The biggest threat to the "free world".

[Spino]

With western democracies now openly supporting the use of tyranny to feel safer from terrorism I think it's becoming more and more apparent that the real threat doesn't come from terrorists, it is from ourselves.

These words still ring very true today and I think it's wise to keep this in mind when considering the kinds of actions you are willing to allow your governments to undertake in the name of keeping you secure from an unknown and unseen "terrorist" enemy.

Not that I don't agree with old Abe's speech but I find it odd that you are quoting a President who relentlessly pursued an 'ends justify the means' policy in order to secure victory during the bloodiest and most important conflict in US history.

I'm not looking to open up a Civil War discussion in this thread but under Lincoln's leadership the general strategy and conduct of the US government during the Civil War covered everything from the suspension of Habeus Corpus, censorship of newspapers and suppression of free speech, kangaroo military courts involving civilians and the brutish unpleasantness caused by Lincoln's approval of Grant's waging of 'total war' on the Confederacy's population and its infrastructure (Sherman's March being the most infamous example of this strategy). The Patriot Act may seem awfully oppressive in this day and age of chat rooms, blogs, free internet pr0n and Desperate Housewives hogging up the prime time airwaves but it is positively mild in comparison to the internal security and intelligence measures taken by the US government in every conflict since the Civil War. If the Civil War seems too distant for you crack open a book on the US government's internal security and intelligence policies implemented during WW2 to read about some major civil rights violations. I daresay any of the measures taken by the US government since the Civil War would fit right in with Lincoln's wartime policies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an 'ends justify the means' man myself but I believe you would have been better off quoting Washington or Franklin; men whose speech and rhetoric generally did not run contrary to their actions.