Last week, the conservatives sent guru William Bennett into the fray, setting up a new organization to target people they consider to be too critical of the war effort. The group, which operates out of Bennett's Empower America, is called Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT). It promises to "take to task those groups and individuals who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the war we are facing." Likely targets are liberal members of Congress. And it poses the war against terror as a crusade against radical Islam, which it calls "an enemy no less dangerous and no less determined than the twin menaces of fascism and Communism we faced in the 20th century."
Bennett told the Voice on Monday that he wanted to keep "enthusiasm" for the war going strong, adding, "This war can take longer than World War II, and we just want to make sure we all are together at the end."
This looks like a rather feeble attempt by the neoconservatives, some of whom are ensconced at the American Enterprise Institute, to start up a blacklist. Bennett disagreed. "It's not a blacklist, it is a wrong-list," he said. "We just think that these people are wrongheaded, unhelpful, and misguided. We live in a free country, so we have the right to debate and go back and forth with them. I am sure I am not going to make president Jimmy Carter shut up if I say that I don't agree with him." And he promised the list would grow. "We don't add them," he said cheerfully. "They add themselves."
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