What government can do to you: our government has steadily, and increasingly openly, treated Americans as dispensable assets--to be used or discarded at will.(Viewpoint essay)

About 15 years ago, I was reporting and writing for the Washington Times editorial page. Until that time, I was a conventional conservative Republican, a Reaganite raised by conservative parents, and generally believed that most of what government did was well-intentioned, if ineffective and requiring reform. I believed, as do most Americans even today, that government does what's best for its citizens.

Then I ran into the issue of prisoners of war and a fellow named Maj. Wirt Elizabeth Thompson, an eye-opener incomparable to anything I had written about before, including the scam of federal deposit insurance, the monkeyshines at the World Bank, and other ...