On Loosing the War on Terror.
Historically, strong nations do not face threats from the outside; they face them from within.
Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin all came into power by scarring their own people with stories of terrorists, be they partisan, communist or Trotskyites lurking in the shadows of their respective civilizations; they all justified their consolidation of power as a move to defend National Security, and they all played on a mix of nationalism and fear in order to get the changes required to give them their ultimately totalitarian position within those countries.
George Bush’s unilateral leadership should concern everyone as it by its very nature consolidates power, and establishes precedent to do so in the future. Regardless of what kind of a man you believe George Bush to be, it leaves the door open for an American Mussolini or Stalin to walk through and ultimately it threatens the one defense our nation has always had from totalitarianism, the separation of powers.
While a small group of people are trying to attack us, they don’t pose much of a threat to our nation’s existence. Though they can bring chaos and tragedy, there is no way they can (on their own) threaten this nation with annihilation. What does pose a threat to our nation’s existence is allowing ourselves to be terrorized to a point that we give up our freedom and justice in the name of safety.
We can win the war on terror without violating our laws, and without turning our back on our nation’s legacy of freedom. I cannot promise that we will be able to stop every attack, however neither can those who are willing to shed our civil liberties in the name of security; even they concede that an attack will most likely get through at some point. What I can say is that violating our supreme law brings us one step closer to calamity, and a step away from being the nation that we aspire to be. In my opinion, that is what loosing the war on terror truly looks like.