tp33.xml

tp33.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-02-24

Our wake up call from the 9/11 attacks was belated.
Only now do we ponder the full extent of threats to
freedom. Yes, we were indeed assaulted by heinous
terrorists. Yet our government has since finished
where Bin Laden left off.

The Department of Homeland Security vows to match the
terrorists' dynamism; flexibility is key when fighting
terrorism. The President -- a fitness enthusiast who
occasionally chops down trees for exercise -- avers
that to touch our toes we must first shoehorn
bric-a-brac agencies into a single monolith.

However, common sense dictates that a more fitting
motto for the DHS behemoth is: ""if you haven't
witnessed our white elephant do a split yet, then you
have never truly seen a white elephant.""

Lest we forget we are dealing with what Bush often
calls ""terrorist killers"". Thus, does it behoove us
to emulate these lawless gadflies? Heaven forbid that
we extend our tour de force against our shadowy
nemeses to clear-eyed allies. Yet Bush might do just
that, as he has already, wantonly, forsaken civil
liberties.

Have we let the War on Terror spill into a war against
law, plunging us down the slippery slope of sloppy
reasoning? The Constitution, some say, is the
ultimate firewall against abuse. But so is our
political culture. We must bolster, rather than bury,
the rule of law. Judicial review has been hijacked.
We cannot follow the courts' deference to the
president. The democratic process is now the
gatekeeper of last resort.

Congressional midterms are fast approaching. It is
not too late to strip Bush's incidental mandate. His
case for war against Hussein has been built on
speculation and fear. In the wake of the attacks
speculation and fear were warranted, but we have since
learned that panic mode is the antithesis of
democratic deliberation.