NEW YORK, N.Y. -- It now looks, with 20-20 hindsight, as though
he should have taken a few more deep breaths before smacking that tar-baby
that is Afghanistan. We're running out of time for three reasons -- winter,
Ramadan and the prospect of millions of people starving to death.
We've run out of time to set up a bridge or coalition government
and so, of necessity, are throwing our lot with the Northern Alliance.
According to the Afghan women's organization, the Northern Alliance is as
bad as the Taliban and, in addition, consists of minority tribes who have
always warred with the majority Pushtan.
We seem to have bombed everything bombable, including the Red
Cross twice. At this point, it seems to me, we can give it another month and
call the war for the season, which is what the Afghans do, and wait 'til
next year without any disgrace. What would be worse than disgraceful is
causing mass starvation. The humanitarian aid folks are getting frantic
about this, and we need to stop and figure out what we can do about it.
The trick to smiting back those who smote us is to first figure
out where they are. This means using creative diplomacy and plain police
work. We need to hit them without killing the innocents around them and, as
Jim Hightower observes, that calls for a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. If it
takes years, it takes years.
The administration is in some danger of sacrificing one of its
most important assets, which is the trust of the American people. The
problem is not that everyone isn't singing off the same page, but that some
parties are being less than frank. And that is fatal to trust. There is no
point in telling us our "surgical, precision bombing" doesn't kill
civilians -- we're grown-ups, we know.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, Congress is engaged in
criminal folly. Not only has the House passed this sickening bundle of tax
cuts to benefit IBM, General Motors and General Electric, but they're
telling us that to defend freedom, we must surrender freedom. In the name of
democracy, we must abandon democracy.
There are 51 emergency anti-terrorism bills packaged under the
meretricious title "proved Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act" -- stands for patriot; cute, eh? Among the more
staggering proposals, PATRIOT authorizes indefinite detention of anyone
"suspected" of any terrorist connection. The definition of "terrorist
activity" is left largely to the FBI and the CIA, which have had notable
difficulty grasping democratic principles in the past.
The definition is so broad that it would cover painting a peace
sign in front of the State Department or protesting a meeting of the World
Trade Organizations. I am indebted to Hightower for a quote from Gunther
Grass: "The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open."
Legislators have already passed much of this garbage and proudly
claim that the most controversial surveillance sections will expire in 2005.
In fact, the 2005 expiration date applies only to a tiny portion of the
sprawling bill. The police will have permanent ability to conduct Internet
surveillance without a court order, and secretly search homes and offices--
the CIA will have cosmetic authority. It's an abomination.
A though this weren't bad enough, the CIA wants the power to
assassinate people, just like terrorists. And the FBI, according to a Walter
Pincus article in The Washington Post, is seeking power to "pressure"
uncooperative prisoners by using drugs or "Israeli-style" methods. Why not
just crack out the bastinado and the rack?
Bush has already created the infelicitiously named Office of
Homeland Security (such a weird, Orwellian ring) and given it powers to
match the National Security Agency with no congressional oversight of its
activities or budget. That recipe is guaranteed to produce unhappy
consequences. In addition, Bush has established something called the
Homeland Defense Command within the Pentagon, giving military authorities a
chance to trump civilian authorities. Come on, is he really so little aware
of how dangerous that is?
There is not the slightest evidence that any of the measures
will do dog to stop terrorism. From what we know of how Sept. 11 happened,
we have a visa system so full of holes it's a disgrace and a problem with
airport security. There really is no inverse relationship between freedom
and security -- we can't make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free.
All that happens when we make ourselves less free is that we're less free.
We also have an obligation to consider what kind of society
we're making in unseemly haste and leaving to our children and future
generations. We urgently need a serious national dialogue about these
issues, but all we're getting from television is 24-hour exploitation of the
anthrax scare.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web
page at
www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
