Editorial War & partisan politics
Baumann, Paul
War & partisan politics A French Catholic journalist and priest recently visited Commonweal's office (don't tell Attorney General John Ashcroft about this possible collaboration with the "enemy")....
...The war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and hunt down Al Qaeda was judged just and necessary by most, both here and abroad...
...Yet that alleged link was the justification that, more than any other, Bush stressed in making the case for war to the American people...
...Nor has any compelling evidence been produced linking Iraq with Al Qaeda and 9/11...
...To his discredit, Bush has done everything he can to encourage that false impression...
...We tried to explain...
...War" was the term Bush used to describe the threat, and the solidarity necessary to fight a war was sought...
...In short, the answer to our French visitor's question is that there is no easy way to take partisan politics out of the war on terrorism...
...Think about the constant reiteration of the terms "coalition," "shock and awe," the advertising slogan "Operation Iraqi Freedom," Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of the wholesale looting and chaos that followed the war as "untidy," the president's so-called growth and jobs budget proposal...
...He asked how and why President George W. Bush remains so popular with the American people...
...In Congress, the Democrats embraced a bipartisan approach, especially in foreign policy...
...In a shameless effort to exploit the anniversary of 9/11, the Republican Convention will be staged in New York City in September, rather than August...
...One gets the sinking feeling that the president thinks victory in war makes the truth or falsehood of the reasons given for war irrelevant...
...about the elusive nature of the terrorist threat...
...All American presidents wrap themselves in the flag, but Bush's willingness to make the memory of three thousand murder victims an integral part of his reelection strategy seems especially crass...
...Polls show, for instance, that most Americans believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11...
...The administration's Orwellian language and reasoning are increasingly evident...
...By the same logic, perhaps the presence of U.S...
...There is really only one answer to these questions: Osama bin Laden...
...What does seem certain is that Bush foresees no end to the "war against terrorism...
...Have not our enemies sworn to destroy us...
...Still, Americans can insist that the truth be told: about the reasons for war in Iraq, and about the consequences of our actions there...
...But it is not at all evident that the defeat and occupation of Iraq have made the United States safer from attack...
...forces, nor have any been found...
...As long as the threat of surreptitious attack exists, as long as the rhetoric of war resonates, and as long as the enemy's identity remains shadowy, Bush will keep his political opponents on the defensive...
...Our visitor was not uncritical of his own government, yet bewildered by the Bush administration's aggressive foreign policy...
...Too many of the administration's pronouncements seem aimed at anesthetizing the brain of the American people...
...Victory has been triumphantly declared in Iraq, and it is assumed that this has increased American security...
...Few seem to care about what is going on in Afghanistan now, least of all the president...
...about "democracy" and "peace" in Afghanistan...
...Even when one senses that the truth is being distorted or withheld for political reasons, it is difficult to second-guess the precautionary steps taken by elected officials...
...about the complicated dangers WMD present (think of North Korea...
...That does not mean Saddam Hussein did not possess WMD, but it does lend more weight to those who argued that UN inspections were working...
...Naturally the conversation turned to the war in Iraq, the French-American imbroglio in the UN Security Council, and the likely course of future events...
...Convinced that terrorists willing to murder three thousand innocent civilians were capable of even worse, the American people put their trust in the president and in the national government...
...Now, with Iraq "liberated," Bush appears more politically unassailable than ever...
...So does the power of the presidency...
...This sort of disingenuous language is typical of an administration that believes if it repeats something often enough it will become true...
...Meanwhile, at home, government's powers of surveillance, detention, and prosecution were expanded...
...Predictably, the president plans to make national security the theme of his reelection campaign...
...Before the Security Council the administration contended that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) presented a clear and imminent danger to the world...
...Iraq's defeat, however, may embolden radical Islamists and Arab nationalists, as has every previous Arab defeat at the hands of the West...
...Yet the Iraqis did not use chemical or biological weapons against U.S...
...Homeland" security brought machine-gun carrying soldiers into airports and train terminals...
...Or perhaps the occupation of Iraq has convinced Iran that only a nuclear deterrent will stop the United States...
...Americans were instructed to be vigilant in public places...
...At some point, the truth will be heard...
...Its apparent success strengthened the president's credibility, and that in turn further strengthened his hand politically...
...Hadn't his actions already forestalled further terrorist attacks...
...In times of national emergency, the power of government inevitably expands...
...troops on Iran's border will give the imams there second thoughts about sponsoring terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons...
...Why wasn't the American antiwar movement more effective...
...Why haven't the Democrats resisted the president's rasher actions...
...It is not a small lie or an unimportant one...
...It doesn't...
...Making America feared, in fact, appears to be the desired aim...
...Still, victory in Iraq has raised more questions that it has answered...
...Even about the administration's "patriotic" tax cuts...
...Perhaps, in demonstrating in no uncertain terms that the United States will retaliate against its enemies (even if not attacked by that particular enemy), the war has intimidated potential terrorists or the governments who harbor them...
...Not coincidentally, the open-ended nature of the "war" dovetails neatly with Bush's own political ambitions...
...The ever shifting and essentially incoherent argument made to justify the war revealed that Bush's larger antiterrorist strategy lacks a cogent rationale and logical endpoint...
...about the importance of not betraying democracy in the fight to preserve it...
...Is not the danger real...
...Periodic warnings that another terrorist attack was imminent became a disquieting feature of daily life...
...So, when the administration suddenly set its sights on Iraq, many Americans were inclined to give Bush the benefit of the doubt...
...If, as the administration now suggests, Iraq's WMD were smuggled into Syria, is not the danger of terrorist attack as great as ever...
...In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the nation united behind the president...
...April 29, 2003...
Vol. 130 • May 2003 • No. 9
