Its a love/hate relationship

I love the suspense created by the TV series by FOX titled '24.' My wife and I rented the first season a couple of years back and I've continued to watch them oft and on. Each season consists of 24 episodes of consecutive one hours time periods about one day, each ending as a cliff hanger for the next of course. If you want to find out more about it, Wiki-pedia can tell you all you want to know and more.
I both love and hate the main character in the series, Jack Bauer. He is a hero of the grandest of sorts, willing to sacrifice his own life for the life of one and for the sake of country. He is courageous, tough, smart, and seemingly unstoppable. On the other hand, he is also a villain. All to often he shows no regard for due process, the law, the bill of rights, or the constitution. His motto seems to be, 'the end justifies the means.' In other words, if you can save a nation of 'innocent' civilians by murdering one innocent person, like Jack did with his boss in season two or three, then its okay because the result out weighs the cost, even if the cost is evil like murder.
I disagree with such thinking out right. It is this sort of thinking that ends up 'justifying' the most heinous of acts. Let me say that the end does not justify the means. I can not nor never should I, determine the rightness of an action based on the outcome of the circumstance. For one, that leaves one guessing about ethics and eventually leads to the idea of might makes right, who ever wins and accomplishes the results they desire must have been right. That kind of thinking would have declared Hitler right if he had won.
When our founding fathers wrote the constitution and the bill of rights, they had seen the abuses of large government with little concern for common man. They had seen the corruption of government and governing officials and the injustices that resulted. It was through those struggles and observations that the ideas of limited government and personal liberty found their way into our constitution and bill of rights.
If those rights are taken away from any one individual, then all of us are in jeopardy of loosing the same rights. Benjamin Franklin once said "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." (here is a great article relevant to today's world)
And now, for some more important reading. :)
Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.