As baby-boomers who cut our political teeth on the tough issues of civil rights and the Vietnam War, we have failed ourselves and our country, placing the future of our children and grandchildren in jeopardy by embracing the very simplicity we abhorred in our parents' worldview.
Our country is in grave danger. Almost 5 years after the horrifying events of 9/11, the nation is mired in a political and military quagmire that threatens to destroy not only the viability of our system of government, but the very fabric of political discourse that, however splintered it may have been, made possible enough dialogue that some semblance of reality might be ascribed to Washington's processes and outcomes.
The crisis is not merely the situation in Iraq, or the wider, more dangerous struggle with fundamentalism at home and abroad. Nor is the crisis solely the consequence of a party's hegemony in the houses of Congress and the Executive branch. Rather, it is a failure of nerve on the part of reasonable men in positions of power that has led us to accept ideological principles over facts, reason, and respect for an open and honest dialogue on both domestic and foreign policy issues.
The events of 9/11 precipitated a predictable, fear-based, reactionary shift in the equilibrium of our country's attitudes toward government. Understandably, as in any time of war, the our leaders swiftly mobilized a unified face to address and contain the threat embodied in the al-Qaeda. It was crucial for the U.S. to appear determined to a world shocked by the seeming ease with which a terrorist organization could strike at the heart of a superpower. And since we were a superpower, we quickly and effectively brought that might to bear on the immediate threat that terrorist training bases in Afghanistan represented. That victory was swift, if not permanent.
But the destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon proved to be far more effective in damaging our system of government than Bin-Laden and his ilk could ever had imagined as they trained in the wasted Afghan terrain. While the short-term result was the dismantlement of the terrorist camps and the defeat of the Taliban regime, regional instability and anti-American sentiment grew in the engagement's badly-managed aftermath, endangering the lives of thousands of innocents, and jeopardizing our long term strategic interests in the Middle East and beyond.
At home, in the charred, post 9/11 political climate, a new seed was germinating. Fostered by fear and the careful manipulation of vital information, the charnel grounds of New York and Virginia sprouted a virulent new bloom. The very methods our democracy has deplored and derided in others began to emerge as the modus operandi of the Bush administration and its allies in Congress, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. Further, in the name of security, our government began suspending its subscription to a basic code of human rights, all the time insisting that the threats justified our becoming more like our enemies than our traditional friends.
Nurtured by Neo-Conservative ideology, the administration began formulating a series of foreign policy initiatives that had as a goal the democratization of the Middle East through regime change even as it sought to de-democratize the workings of the government and the rights of individuals at home, not to mention the conventions of war long held to be the standard of treatment for prisoners. Hawks soared over the halls of Congress and opposition to the ideological juggernaut was met not with logic and facts, but with personal attacks impugning the `patriotism' of any who questioned the wisdom or method used by the administration to justify its plans and actions. Jesus himself was invoked as an avatar of allegiance.
Good men and women withheld their counsel, fearing to be tarred with the black brush of being `liberal' or `soft'. Power concentrated in fewer hands, questions went unanswered, thinking unchallenged, the Abilene ice-cream journey was underway. Leaders in the departments of State, the CIA and FBI, the Pentagon, and congress itself, nodded grimly as the `facts' were presented, ignoring the voices from within their own organizations that warned not only were these not facts, but that the `facts' themselves were being actively suppressed or `cherry-picked' in the Oval Office itself. `Going to the mat' no longer meant sticking to your guns to make sure your ideas were heard, but rather, it took on a new meaning; roll over quietly or be skewered by the Rovian spin machine.
Many left their posts quietly. Most kept quiet, until now.
The past week has brought forth breath-taking revelations of incompetence at the very top of our elected government. A massive failure of leadership emerges like a vein of
ore from the eroding political landscape of Washington. No institutions appear to be immune. Bin Laden's wildest dream, a dream of destabilizing and eventually destroying our way of life, is materializing not because of what he did, but because of how our leadership chose to respond the events set in motion on 9/11/01. He dug the hole. We were `smoked into' it.
Our most cherished institutions, the decorum and candor that characterizes the best we have to offer as leaders, trust, integrity, and the truth itself are all in danger of being misled off a cliff of our own making. Yet now, at what is perhaps the 11th hour, a few voices in congress, from `retired' military, from `ex' cabinet members and intelligence professionals are emerging to tell of the lies, deceptions and manipulations that the administration has used to prop up its failed ideological approach.
Where were they when we needed them most? What can they possibly say now but to confirm their own cowardice when leadership was required. How is it possible that such bright, articulate and experienced individuals could be so derelict in their leadership duties that they allowed this administration to take our country, a country to whom they have devoted many years of service, to the brink of moral, political and economic bankruptcy based on the half-backed theories emanating from Fox News pundits and over-insulated `think tanks'?
None of this information was unknown, particularly `secret' or closely held, but it went publicly unchallenged. The fear machine runs on power and that power is concentrated in the hands of a few. Since congress has been controlled by the Republican party, there has been a reluctance to openly challenge the administration on its policies, reasoning and facts. Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress failed to take the necessary risks that might have derailed or stalled the agenda of the Rumsfeld-Cheney neo-con policy cabal.
So what can we do now that we know? We can of course blame Bush, but the fault lies everywhere in Washington. And everywhere else in America as well.
For Americans, its crunch time. In a matter of a few short years, the fallout from this administration's policies will begin to show up as cancers on the fabric of our lives and institutions. The reaction will likely be to look for leaders who'll tell us what we want to hear, that it will all be ok, no sacrifice required. As long as we aren't asked to think for ourselves, to examine options, or pay attention to the wider world, we'll elect those who promise us safety, security and no responsibility for ourselves, our communities or our world at large. No reckoning will be demanded, it makes one `un-electable'.
The system is salvageable only if We, the People choose to take it back. Like any journey, it will be painful, fearsome, a challenge and opportunity and the source of wisdom for future travelers. What was familiar will be lost along the way, and the new will seem frightening and perhaps not worth the effort. But there can be no turning back unless we're willing to accept that we've been defeated and bin-Laden was right.
It will require each of us to step up as leaders in our ever widening circles of influence. From family, to community, to country, We the People are responsible for holding ourselves and our leadership accountable for results at home and abroad. It will require the rejection of ideology and the elevation of real dialogue (as opposed to `discussion' and `debate') as the highest and most valuable form of communication and human interaction.
Integration is more difficult than division to enact and sustain. Yet, as human beings, we are called toward greater wholeness individually, culturally and internationally. Failure to answer that call, in whatever way we can, is our own failure of leadership. Goethe said, "....begin it now!" He was on to something.