Posted on 07/23/2002 8:06:27 PM PDT by Texasforever
We are a little more than a month away from the 1st anniversary of 911 and I am sure that the media is gearing up for a deluge of heart rending retrospectives and for a few hours Americans will turn from the stock market and remember that long ago event with not a dry eye to be found. I say “long ago” because on American time, a year is ancient history. We vaguely remember that we fought a 3-month campaign in Afghanistan that may have killed Bin Laden but even that is unknown at the moment. We vaguely remember the anthrax mailings and the President’s speech in which he declared war on terrorism and that the war would be long and for the most part not a television event. We will vaguely remember the flood of patriotic feelings and calls for citizen participation in a war to save our civilization against an enemy that wanted to kill us and did so by the thousands.
In the weeks and months following 911, the American people were shocked into an awareness of danger that can only be described as a nerve laid bare. We accepted the fact that air travel was going to be more inconvenient and that the need for added security measures in all areas would need to be tightened up. As 911 receded and the TV action in Afghanistan gradually withdrew to be replaced by the Enron collapse and the mundane day to day events that were so common pre 911, a sense of comfort started to seep back into our lives. It has been almost a year since the last attack and we are beginning to wonder if all of this inconvenience is required. Many people from the entire political spectrum are also now asking if the government and especially this administration are using a year old event to expand government intrusion into the lives of average citizens. To make their point they cite every step the government takes to strengthen security as either unworkable, an over reaction or a sinister plot. You would be hard pressed to point to one government action that has been taken that has been viewed as positive from the media and pundits.
The administration is pilloried for issuing too many warnings, not enough warnings and the non-specificity of any of the warnings. All new laws passed are immediately interpreted as a threat, not to terrorists that may be in our midst, but to the citizens of this country. Volunteer efforts are not exempt from this onslaught with the “TIPS” program a prime example of equating a telephone tip line to the East German Stasi. The big news now is how to protect the constitutional rights of terrorist suspects. What this tells me is that many people are ready to “declare victory” and get back to our comfortable pre-911 lives. That certainly would calm the nerves of many that fear the government more than the terrorists that seem to have given up and gone home. It could be that President Bush was wrong and the war was actually only 3 months long and that any further action will be far away from our shores as we have come to expect.
I would truly hate to be in the shoes of this or any other president given public’s loss of urgency in the War on Terror. If he actually believes, based on all information given to him that there remains a serious threat to the country and he does not take the steps he and his advisors deem necessary and an attack succeeds, he is through as president and with him his party and depending on the nature of the attack maybe the country. If he does take the steps required he is in the situation he faces today, a public that has decided that an attack unmade is a threat not real and it is time to go back to our comfortable slumber unencumbered by needless and “dangerous” laws and government intrusion and inconvenience. There is validity in fearing expansion of government and the attendant powers it assumes. That is always a threat from any government ever conceived by man. That fear is sometimes tempered by an external threat dire enough to balance the fear of our own government against the fear of the external threat such as terrorism. I sense that the external threat is no longer perceived as strong enough in the War on Terror to keep the perception of being at war. Without television coverage of bombs dropping and anti-aircraft fire in ghostly green streamers and Pentagon press conferences war is not a state many feel the country is in.
One thing we have learned is that no “war”, without public support and cohesiveness of purpose, can be won and certainly not a war that is without a defined battleground and an easily identifiable enemy that is what we are used to and that image is ingrained in our national psyche. For a short 5 months there was a battleground, it was in downtown Manhattan and in our nation’s capitol. It was on an airplane that was headed for the White House and brought down by ordinary citizens fighting an identifiable enemy. It was in Afghanistan complete with Pentagon Briefings and eerie green battle scenes. That was war. But that was long ago and far away. The new War, in the minds of many, is now called, “The War on Our Civil Liberties” and is now being fought on the familiar battleground of politics and agendas. It is a war against the possible abuses of a government that many people are far more afraid of than an enemy that appears to have given up. They may be right. I pray they are.
Yeah. The libertarians can be counted on to gripe and bitch, like the kid with a sack of marbles who's constantly counting them, thinking somebody took one when they weren't looking.
It's hysteria.
That sure describes me.
PS- Ignore the bush bot. The pesky critters are pre-programed to hop on a thread and insult anyone who does not genuflect quickly enough.
So you agree that the war is or should be over?
America was attacked within its own shores by its sworn enemies. Thousands of our fellow citizens were murdered. America's resolve came forth and was on open display for the first time in a long time. However, retribution must not just be certain. Retribution must be adequate.
The war continues. The outcome is undecided. If America is strong, determined, and resolute, then it will prevail. Our enemies abroad are no match for the stength we possess. On the other hand, if we succomb to the idolitrous worship of timidity advanced by the enemies from within, then the impotent cockroaches who attacked us may yet have their way.
I say "surprisingly" not as any kind of dismissive insult... I just didn't know that you could really write. Well, call me gobsmacked... this is not bad writing.
I don't even necessarily agree with your overall perspective, I just think that your prose ain't half bad.
If you enjoy writing, maybe you should take up a Guest Column for some local Texas paper as a diversion. Offered strictly as a point of personal observation -- no agenda or particular interest -- you might enjoy the exercise. Justa thought.
The analysis has been lousey. We are in a holy war with an aggressive self-perpetuating psychosis palming itself off as a religion. It is a continuation of a pattern which has occurred for more than 1,000 years in that group of people. Few people want to admit it for fear of offending somebody.
The quickest way to lose a war, or to lose support for it, is to fail to adaquately define the enemy.
There is also an element of Marxism involved. Various cultures, religions, leaders, or political system expect the United States to support their deficiencies and feel the right to take resentful and aggressive positions if this support is not forthcoming. This position is not refuted at the top levels of the U. S. government. Consequently, our position is weakened and without moral support.
LOL Thanks.
So, there's the problem. Personally, I blame TV for ruining people's attention spans, but that's neither here nor there. But now I ask, what's the solution? How does this administration keep people focused on what may still be a credible threat from abroad?
Some folks may very well assume that there is no threat from abroad any more, but that strikes me as just the sort of complacency that led to 9/11 in the first place. Eternal vigilance, and all that...
I can't help but wonder if this leak of the invasion plans for Iraq wasn't entirely accidental, and was a way of keeping everyone's eyes on the ball. Rummy seems genuinely peeved by it, but Rummy's a smooth character who could pull off "genuinely peeved" in public if he needed to, I think.
In any case, setting that aside, how does this administration keep people focused short of another Reichstag fire?
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