"The first responsibility of our government is the security of every American. In this era of unprecedented and unpredictable challenge, we must be prepared for any threat."
So begins the "Democrats' plan for Real Security." I like it, because it talks about security, rather than some quixotic crusade to spread democracy (read Western-style, corporatist, America-loving democracy) all over the world. The next time the President says that "democracies don't fight each other," someone should take a thick history book and hit him upside the head with it. He's flat-out wrong.
Anyway, the Dem plan says all the right things abouts vets, first responders, ports and nuclear materials. Then, on page 4, it lost me. In bold headlines, there it is -- "War on Terror."
Okay, it's time for some straight talk. THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR. Repeat after me. THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR. Again. THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR.
That's the plain truth. Any more than there has been a "war" on drugs, or on crime, or on poverty. After all, we still have drug dealers and criminals and poor people. It's a slogan, that's all. But in this case, the word "war" is being used for the malevolent purpose of providing this President with an excuse to trample on our civil liberties, to torture, to do all manner of harm to our Constitution. And the last thing the Democrats should do is buy into his characterization of a permanent and ongoing state of war. Security, yes. War, no.
Let me explain:
1. You can't have a war if you can't identify the enemy.
2. You can't have a war if you can't locate the enemy.
3. You can't have a war that would literally need to be fought in every country in the world, in direct violation of international law.
4. You can't have a war if you don't have a way to end it. Will there be a peace treaty at the end with Islamic extremists? Will we ever know when the last terrorist rides off into the sunset?
5. You can't have a war without specific goals and objectives. To "kill the terrorists" ain't gonna cut it.
We all know, and the President has said, that there could be another attack tomorrow. In fact, some in the Administration have said there will be another attack someday. There will never be a time, even if we roll up the Bin Laden gang, when we will be able to say with certainty that the war on terror is over and we have won. Never.
That's because it isn't a war. The most we can do, as the Democrats suggest, is to secure ourselves against the likelihood of an attack by doing everything possible to achieve real homeland security. We may capture some terrorists along the way, we may even kill a few. But that is more in the nature of what John Kerry called a "police" action. And it must be done with the full cooperation of other countries, especially any country in which we put boots on the ground.
The other thing we can do, which the Democrats don't even mention, is to seek negotiated solutions to the hot spots that create the antagonisms that cause average people to become suicide bombers. True Islamic extremists -- the ones that hate our "way of life," according to Dubya's inflated and inflammatory rhetoric -- are few and far between. Their numbers are increased by those who are genuinely angered by our perceived lack of evenhandedness toward Israel, or by our willingness to trade our so-called democratic principles for oil and trade when it comes to autocratic "partners" like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. As long as we refuse to take a hard look at our own policies and have an honest and open debate about them, we will never eliminate terrorism.
As the great Walter Cronkite always used to say, "And that's the way it is."