EDITORIALS : At All Costs
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
As the twin towers fell from the heavens seven years ago this September, Americans around the world could feel the proverbial gloves coming off the federal government.
Despite being dragged kicking and screaming into an era defined by the constant threat of terrorism, there was no doubt that the United States would respond to the crisis, and forcefully at that.
What nobody could clearly predict at the time was the extent to which the Bush administration would prosecute its battles, both abroad and here at home. Certainly the fight in Afghanistan has been fought with a lack of concentration for too long, while the country's objectives in Iraq have taken front and center, overwhelming the larger battle against the enemy.
But it is here at home - where citizens find out after the fact that Uncle Sam is quite willing to roll back the personal freedoms of U. S. citizens in the hopes of protecting the nation from future attack - that a majority of Americans have begun to wonder if this grand effort is being handled in the best fashion possible.
To put it simply, if the government defeats the bad guys by tossing aside the civil liberties that make Americans the good guys, is that seemingly elusive victory really worth the trouble ?
As everyone knows, President Bush will no longer be the commander in chief five months from now, which explains why most political observers are no longer asking the question posed above.
Next January the problem will fall to either John McCain or Barack Obama, and everyone generally agrees that neither candidate will play fast and loose with the rule of law in the same fashion that has become a trademark of the 43 rd president.
However, a recent report out of Washington reminds us that even lame-duck presidents retain impressive levels of political power. It seems the Justice Department is proposing a domestic spying measure that would make it much easier for the country's approximately 18, 000 state and local police agencies to collect information about private citizens, share it with the federal government and then retain it for up to at least 10 years. Does that sound like America to you ? Of the changes mentioned above, a White House spokesman told the press that the administration is doing everything possible to protect America and preserve civil liberties in the same breath - and most of the time is successful in this immensely important effort. Others would say this is just one part of a vast reorganization of the nation's spy agencies that could go a long way toward continuing President Bush's influence over the way the federal government operates for years to come - regardless of who wins the election this November. Regarding President Bush's 7 1 / 2 years in office, the difficulty with so many of his administration's policies have not been the goals behind the decisions, but the methods by which they are pursued. Very few Americans doubt that Washington has a critically important role to play in defense of the 300 million citizens it serves. But even the best laws can be bent badly out of shape by either well-intentioned people who go too far or folks with less-thanethical motivations who use latitude created in administration polices and law to abuse personal liberties. Civil liberties really relate to how free people are from government interference, oppression or coercion. Their protection, as demonstrated by our Founding Fathers, must be at the core of who we are as Americans. President Bush has left citizens wondering if there may be better ways to push through with a war against terrorism. It's not about whether the fight needs to be fought. It's about how precisely Americans go about doing it. Like so many proposals before it, the Justice Department's request depends on whether Americans trust the federal government - and, in this case, state and local authorities - to make the right calls. At this point, the case has not been made that Uncle Sam deserves even more discretion over the American people than is already the case.
- Northwest Arkansas Times
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