Bush order to spy must be seen in perspective
Gregory Kane
baltimoresun.com
January 7, 2006
We should thank our lucky stars that Newsweek magazine has editors and writers capable of keeping things in historical perspective.
In the past couple of weeks, you'd have thought President Bush was the second coming of Josef Stalin, what with all the wailing and weeping about Dubya's authorizing the National Security Agency to "eavesdrop - without a warrant - on telecommunications flowing from the U.S. to overseas," according to Newsweek reporters Evan Thomas and Daniel Klaidman. Bush gave the order after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Thomas and Klaidman reported that the result was government eavesdropping "on about 500 Americans a day." Whether they were 500 different Americans each day or a gaggle of the same folks suspected of aiding and abetting terrorist activity wasn't clear. But the Newsweek reporters made what is perhaps the most significant point about the eavesdropping.
"Much of [it] is by a computer searching for key words, not a human being listening to a private conversation" wrote Thomas and Klaidman.
If that's the worst of it, then Bush might be one of the least culpable presidents when it comes to trampling on American civil liberties. He's certainly nowhere near as bad as the president who was perhaps the greatest abuser of civil liberties in our history, Abe "The Violator" Lincoln.
Thomas and Klaidman mentioned Lincoln as one of several presidents who, when faced with external or internal security issues, came down heavily on the side of security vs. civil liberties. President Richard M. Nixon's wiretapping of his domestic "enemies" was highlighted, as well as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's World War II executive order that resulted in the internment of thousands of Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans.
But when it comes to the business of trampling on constitutional rights, Roosevelt and Nixon were amateurs next to Lincoln. Abe "The Violator" had a testy row with Chief Justice of the United States Roger B. Taney about Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. Taney said such a suspension was within the power of the legislative branch, not the executive branch. Lincoln won that argument, mainly by ignoring Taney and locking up war critics.
Lincoln also won - or the nation he led won - the Civil War, perhaps because of his draconian policies. And as horrible as the internment of Japanese nationals and Japanese-American citizens was during World War II, Roosevelt was motivated by his desire for an American victory.
Bush was clearly motivated to prevent any further terrorist attacks that would have killed thousands more American citizens. But let's forget what good motives men such as Lincoln, Roosevelt or Bush had or have. In the current political climate, it's best that we adopt a new approach to things such as terrorist attacks, armed insurrections or the bombing of our military installations.
Let's just "walk it off."
Hey, think of the upside. We'll keep our precious civil liberties intact. We won't have to worry that, in the words of some doom-and-gloomers, "the terrorists win" if we violate some civil liberties.
Let's be clear on that last point. The terrorists win if they kill large numbers of Americans. That's their goal. They don't give a tinker's damn about our civil liberties.
But many of us do. And we don't want to violate 'em. So the next time a group of terrorists kills thousands of Americans, let's not make that downer of a moment even more of a downer for our civil liberties absolutists.
Let's just "walk it off."
Hey, we could have "walked it off" after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, couldn't we? We didn't have to declare war. "Walking it off" would have prevented the internment of all those Americans of Japanese ancestry. That nasty business of dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war and possibly saved the lives of thousands of Japanese who might have perished in an American invasion wouldn't have been necessary, either.
Had we simply "walked it off" after Pearl Harbor, we'd have spared the world all those piddling benefits of an Allied victory in World War II. Instead of a free and prosperous Japan at peace, we'd have a Japan and its military still running amok in the Far East. Instead of a free European Union, we'd have a Europe parceled out by Nazi Germany.
This "walking it off" thing is looking better all the time.
Those of us who figured the president had emergency powers in times of war and crisis have clearly been wrong. Those of us who figured the National Security Agency was so named for a reason now stand corrected. Those of us who believed our presidents have a difficult job trying to strike a fine balance between our safety and our liberty now know that safety doesn't matter.
When bad things happen, we should just "walk it off."
greg.kane@baltsun.com |
