Posted on 07/13/2006 4:46:53 AM PDT by Tolik
The Bush administration should stop repeating that it is fighting the war on terror for truth, justice and the American way. Instead, the president and his staff should be blunt and explain that, since Sept. 11, it has had to choose between options that are bad or far worse.
By all means, the administration should invite critics to suggest constructive alternatives to the way it's handled this war. But it should also point out that those who have honed in on flaws in current U.S. anti-terror policies have so far been bereft of other workable ideas.
Take the uniform-less and stateless terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay. To be sure, there are alternatives to the current U.S. policy, but are they any better? Should we try hundreds of them in American courts like Zacarias Moussaoui or in international tribunals as the Europeans attempted with Slobodan Milosevic? Or send them home to face torture in autocracies like Egypt or Saudi Arabia? Or do we ship the terrorists back to countries that would simply declare them heroes and let them go?
And can the critics offer better ways to track terrorists than through wiretapping and surveillance? How, otherwise, would one have learned in time about those in Miami who plotted to take down the Sears Tower, or the Lebanese cadre who planned to blow up the Holland Tunnel?
The Bush administration can also use history to show that, despite what detractors say, its techniques aren't so unreasonable. It's worth reminding the American public that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and shut down newspapers; that Woodrow Wilson imprisoned prominent dissenters like Eugene Debs; and that Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment of Japanese-American citizens and secret military tribunals for German saboteurs (six of whom were executed) and allowed for the cover-up of military catastrophes (such as the hundreds killed during training exercises for the Normandy landings).
In other words, there's an advantage to providing historical perspective by engaging one's critics and answering their charges. The public, for example, should be informed that the accusation that the U.S. went into Iraq for oil ("no blood for oil," as the slogan goes) is not merely inaccurate, but crazy. For starters, gas prices skyrocketed once we induced risky change in the Middle East. How does that benefit the American people? Meanwhile, because of the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's energy sector has been purged of corruption (such as the U.N.'s scandal-plagued oil-for-food program).
In Europe, a poll recently showed that people there view the U.S. as a greater threat than Iran. If this is the case, is it not time to politely suggest to our "allies" that many of our half-century-old military bases in prosperous Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain have outlived their usefulness?
The Arab world's perennial grievances against the United States don't hold up either, given that America has saved Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait and Somalia, and provided billions in aid to Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians.
The Bush administration would also be in the right to wonder aloud whether its domestic critics wish to go back to bombing away without consulting the U.S. Congress or the United Nations as we did in the Balkans. And when Americans are butchered, are we to skedaddle, as both Presidents Reagan and Clinton did, from Lebanon and Somalia respectively?
Our present muscular policy - and we also hear this all too infrequently - grew out of just such past bipartisan inaction that led to 3,000 murdered Americans. The truth is that the old way of doing business, rightly or wrongly, was seen by jihadists as encouragement to up the ante with Sept. 11.
Ultimately, the Bush administration needs to do a better job of presenting this current war in a far larger context. Jihadists of the Arab world for decades have been at war not with George Bush alone, but with modernity itself. The radical Middle East street may be fascinated by the Internet, satellite television, ATMs and cell phones - but not by the foreign anathema of democracies, religious tolerance, free markets and gender equality that ultimately accounts for such goodies.
Here at home, we are witnessing the end of the multicultural dogma. Yes, there are really evil people who wish to kill us for who we are, not what we do - and they embrace cultural assumptions that are not just different from our own, but, let us be honest enough to admit it, far worse.
So, there are many fronts in our struggle against Islamic terrorists from the 7th century. The American people must be reminded of our challenges constantly in lieu of platitudes about the inevitable triumph of freedom and democracy. In short, our government should provide much more explanation of this complex war and far less simple declarations about it.
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.
Bush has been stunningly inarticulate. That's where someone with Guiliani's orator skills would be so effective.
The American people have a short attention span. 9/11 is a distant memory.
I pray that it remains a distant memory. (we don't get hit again)
It's up to us to keep reminding people just why we are at war. When someone says something silly, do you remain silent? I hope not (and you being a Freeper, I doubt it).
Talking to friends, neighbors, co-workers is one thing we can do.
I work with a couple of lefties and when they say something DUish, I'll raise my head and say "Do you REALLY want to stand by that?" well they don't do that much any more. Leaving articles around is another.
Bush has been stunningly inarticulate.
For me the problem is they don't talk about it more. I don't know if I'd call it inarticulate, it's more the message has to go out through the MSM and many of the things he says don't get the corverage they should.
Israel has been stunningly inarticulate in their case to exist. There are no articulate military leaders, Rice and Rumsfeld just don't command the stage adequately.
What's "SDS" ? The 1960's radical organization, Students for a Democratic Society?
The triumph of freedom and democracy is *not* inevitable.
The WOT is one of Bush's greatest assets and it's the issue of security that won the 04 election. That means that he will use what new information coming out of Iraq to bolster the party when the party needs it. New evidence of WMD will be used, as well all the previous successes: death of Zarqawi, new government, etc. It's just timing.
This war is going to be around for a while and the American public does want to win it -- there's no other option.
Yes.
Bush is Commander in Chief, not Explainer in Chief.
Sorry sir, but I believe VDH has a better grasp of the situation than you give him credit for. Perhaps you should spend a little time reading his works before commenting on his level of stupidity.
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The presidency is an elected position. That means he damn well better explain his actions, or risk handing the position to the Democrats next time around. Because you can bet that the Dems will explain for him if he doesn't find the time himself.
I'm behind W all the way on the WOT, but it would be nice to be able to quote the president rather than just quoting myself, next time I'm defending him against my liberal acquaintenances. Most of them were behind Bush right after 9/11, but are drifting away again these days, after being pounded daily by the MSM's recital of tradedies in Iraq.
Good points. I pray W will finally realize that this is a war against Islamofascism. My blog, abundanthope.blogspot.com/ has a large entry on that. It is Muslim murderers we face not the Amish or Presbyterians. Time to stop being PC, join with Israel, and blast both Iran and Syria the real two troublemakers who feed the maddrasses hatred and ME bile.
And they will twist his words. What Bush is doing is what people, in their insular lives, will not understand. People understand $3 gasoline and house payments. Try telling cats that you have no food for them.
Bush has Tony Snow to explain as Tony Snow does every business day.
True, Tony Snow is great, that was an inspired move getting him on the team.
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