What to do about the WTC attacks has been debated ad nauseam on these boards. I don’t want to hash out how effective these might or might not be.
What I am wondering about is, what damage might we do to ourselves if we take whatever course of action?
For instance: does anyone remember the news story that came out during the Super Bowl, about the crowd cameras that scanned faces in the crowds outside the stadium and compared them with a database of known criminals and terrorists? Anyone doubt that we will see an explosion of this technology in the coming years? Anyone besides me think that we’d be sacrificing our right to privacy in exchange for security?
More worrisome is this ‘declaration of war’ that Congress is working on. The problem is that we don’t yet have anyone to declare war on, so the authors are inserting language stating that our enemies are any sponsors or perpetrators of terrorism. This strikes me as the anti-terrorist equivalent of the Tonkin Gulf resolution, giving the president carte blanche to wage antiterror activities against anyone he sees fit, for as long as he needs it. Which conceivably could mean that anti-terrorist forces could be used anywhere, including here in the US, without any constitutional safeguards.
Nuclear war. Wholesale murder of civilians, again. That sort of thing.
It’s just that right now, everyone is mourning, horrified, and infuriated to the highest degree. This is 100% natural, and a healthy response to such a cataclysm, but it’s no state to be making mercilessly serious decisions that will affect the lives of six billion people in.
It’s a wrenching conundrum: decisions have to be made soon, and decisions have to be made with the utmost reflection and responsibility. I say again: festina lente, make haste slowly.
Scared? No, not scared. Definitely concerned, of course. Looks to me like Bush, et al, are going about things the right way. Powell is doing the diplomatic dance, our allies appear to be assisting with intelligence and rounding up suspects, and the military is getting all its ducks in a row for whatever the prez tells them to do. I don’t see any unnecessary actions being taken. Do you? I’m actually more concerned that more terrorism is on the way, and by that I mean sooner, not later. I strongly hope that when military action happens, it’s deliberate and controlled. Things look good to me so far.
According to an NPR report I listened to yesterday afternoon, Congress is crafting the language so as to prevent just that possibility. While the President is being given greater leeway, because of the lack of information we have as yet, there are some very specific restrictions. Basically, as I understand it, he will be able to order actions against only those people involved in the atrocities of Sept. 11. So he will not be able to attack just anyone he feels like.