We Are Not 'A Nation In Danger' [CBS NEWS BARF ALERT]

CBS News ^ | August 5, 2004 | Dick Meyer

[ejdrapes]

We Are Not 'A Nation In Danger'

"We are a nation in danger."

- President George W. Bush, August 2, 2004

I don’t buy it.

I think America in 2004 is about as far removed from fundamental danger as any nation in history has ever been. We may be scared, but we are, in fact, safe. Safe, at least, by any reasonable historic measure.

No other country on earth has military might even close to ours. Has such a global monopoly on armed power ever existed? Has any nation had less to fear from its neighbors and foreign armies?

Modern America does know real danger. The nuclear duel of the Cold War was real danger. America is safer than it was when the Soviet Union existed. The threat of nuclear proliferation, of a nuclear attack from a small state or terrorists, existed then, too. The country is probably better prepared to prevent that now.

We are safer from plague, pestilence, famine and weather than any of our ancestors ever were.

We have one of the most stable governments in human history. There is no risk of a dictator, a Gestapo or a civil war.

I'm quite certain that I've never been accused of being an optimist. But even I can't accept the dark, frightened dictate the president issued, ironically, from the Rose Garden.

America does have enemies - crazy, sadistic, tenacious, growing and wily enemies. America is an open and ethnically diverse society with vast borders, huge tourism and immigration.

So the country is of course vulnerable to terrorism. After 9/11, Americans feel that acutely and perhaps that is sad. But no one in government underestimates the country's vulnerability or the power of the unconventional enemy.

This does not, however, add up to a nation in danger. It adds up to something that sounds too callous for politicians to say out loud. America is vulnerable to the tragedy and trauma of a terrorists attacks. There is a much more remote danger of an act of terror with a nuclear device that could eclipse 9/11. But there is no danger of the equivalent of war on our soil, of mass loss of life, of a crippled economy, disrupted civilian life and destabilized government.

Israel is in danger. Palestinians are in danger. Iraq is in danger. Sudan is in danger. Colombia is in danger. America is not in danger.

And America is not at war.

What happened in Afghanistan and Iraq was war. We should have stuck to that old-fashioned use of the word war. The battle now and ahead with the evildoers is not likely to be helped by calling it war any longer.

Perhaps it was necessary to use the rhetoric of war after 9/11 to marshal an adequate and swift response to the newly real threat. Perhaps. We’ve had wars on crime, a war on drugs and even a war on poverty. Why not a war on terror? There is no intrinsic reason why not.

But war, and even war rhetoric, can rationalize unwise and uncharacteristic choices at home – restricted civil liberties, plundered treasury, over-reaching bureaucracy, fear-mongering, and misplaced secrecy. Both the administration and the opposition party have bungled that balance; the glaring example of that is the dishonest case that was sold and bought for invading Iraq. Both sides have squandered credibility.

"War" is a word that ends arguments. So is "danger." The president has tried to sell a lot of policy by saying it was necessary because we are at war and in danger and so have the Democrats.

We don’t need to declare ourselves "a nation in danger" or "a nation at war" to carefully reform the intelligence bureaucracy, to respond to discovered plots and threats, to catch terrorists or to get other nations to help our cause.

We don’t need to be a nation of crybabies or a nation that cries wolf.

Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington.

[ejdrapes]

Dick Meyer, bite me!

[oceanview]

too bad one of those guys in Albany couldn't have fired a stinger missile up his a**.

[Always Right]

There was an assistant director of counterterrorism from the Clinton Administration who wrote a similar op-ed piece for the New York Times. It appeared in August 2001.....

[Puppage]

Has such a global monopoly on armed power ever existed?

Has any country in the HISTORY of the world done more to free people & give them a better life?

Who does this jerk think he is....Miss Cleo?

[finnman69]

Hey Dick!

This is the lead story on CBS news.

2 Nabbed In Alleged Missile Plot

Two leaders of an upstate New York mosque were snared in a sting operation by a federal agent posing as a terrorist trying to buy a shoulder-fired missile, officials say. More...

Think about that next time you fly out of LaGuardia or Reagan National.

[4MoreYearsOfBushGivesEnemyHell]

Was this Dicky`s opinion before 911 - People like this are a disease !!

[DCPatriot]

If there is an attack of sorts prior to the election, the liberals will be screaming "What has he been doing for the past 3 years?".

They want to have it both ways.

[Lexington Green]

We Are Not 'A Nation In Danger'

Tell that to the 3,000 dead of 9-11

[Flightdeck]

How quickly some forget.

[OldFriend]

If it wasn't so pathetic,I'd laugh.

Would he care to tell that to the wicked widows?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He was on assignment on 9-11.

[Spok]

"we are, in fact, safe. Safe, at least, by any reasonable historic measure"

On 9/11, more civilians were slaughtered in America than had been since the Civil War. More Americans died on 9/11 than were killed at Pearl Harbor. Do we need a subway filled with sarin gas or a mushroom cloud over Chicago for this fool to 'get it'? I'm sure he sleeps better living in his little bubble. Only vigilance and sacrifice protects the fantasy world morons like this inhabit.

[DeFault User]

But there is no danger of the equivalent of war on our soil, of mass loss of life, of a crippled economy, disrupted civilian life and destabilized government.

No? A few refineries or power plants or a dam or two taken out wouldn't have a crippling effect on the economy or a disruption of the civilian population? Look what three buildings and four airplanes did.

[Bahbah]

"America does have enemies - crazy, sadistic, tenacious, growing and wily enemies...So the country is of course vulnerable to terrorism."

This is what the president is talking about, you blithering idiot, not a hurricane, a coup d'etat or an outbreak of the plague. He sets up all of these ridiculous straw men and uses that to say Bush's remark was off base.

[Semper Vigilantis]

"No other country on earth has military might even close to ours."

"And what good are arms, sir, if we are not allowed to use them?" (Fletcher Christian - Mutiny on the Bounty)

[sanjacjake]

It's so frustrating...after another attack..they'll
say...only happens every three years....and unless
Bush is there to go after them..they will multiply
faster than rabbits...and then it will be only every
two years..then down to every year, then down to month
by month. and they will still say....it won't happen
again....I pray (literally) that our President is there
for another term....join me...it is time to get our oar
in the water....not K's half-a$$ boat.....Jake

[Steve_Seattle]

There is no risk of a dictator, a Gestapo or a civil war.

Well, at least on that score, he disagrees with Bush's paranoid critics.

America does have enemies - crazy, sadistic, tenacious, growing and wily enemies . . . So the country is of course vulnerable to terrorism . . . But no one in government underestimates the country's vulnerability or the power of the unconventional enemy.

This, of course, contradicts what he says below.

This does not, however, add up to a nation in danger. It adds up to something that sounds too callous for politicians to say out loud. America is vulnerable to the tragedy and trauma of a terrorists attacks.

But there is no danger of the equivalent of war on our soil, of mass loss of life, of a crippled economy, disrupted civilian life and destabilized government.

Yes there is. The Islamists have repeatedly said they want to destroy us, destroy our economy, and kill as many of us as possible. After 9-11, how can anyone say that it is beyond their power to wreak enormous damage on this country?

[OneRatToGo]

We have one of the most stable governments in human history. There is no risk of a dictator, a Gestapo or a civil war.

If the 4th plane hadn't departed Newark late and then been downed by the impromptu civilian militia aboard then we wouldn't have had much of a government when the capital was taken out.

[Stellar Dendrite]

more proof of the absolute incompetence of todays "journalists".

[Oldeconomybuyer]

...And America is not at war...

Delusional.