The War on Terrorism

By Bruce Herschensohn

Since September 11, President George W. Bush has taken extraordinary measures to find terrorists in the United States, and he has signed an Executive Order allowing military commissions to handle the trials of terrorists who are non-U.S. citizens. In addition, there are efforts to locate terrorists by questioning and even detaining suspects. Those executive efforts have sparked debates often characterized as "personal rights vs. public safety after September 11." That distinction is not only inaccurate, it is dangerous, as it causes liberty-loving people who place personal rights well above public safety to think in false terms.

The issue is not "personal rights vs. public safety after September 11." We can only wish it to be so simple. The consequential issue is the inconveniences and temporary sacrifice of deeply ingrained sense of normality vs. national survival.

Many who recognize the risks of national survival and agree with national security efforts being taken, are concerned that temporary actions will become permanent, our liberties irrevocably diminished. History tells us quite the opposite.

In other wars in which our national survival was at risk, extraordinary executive measures were taken by the Presidents of those times. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt took what they felt were necessary measures, many of them far more sweeping than those taken by George W. Bush. When the wars were done, liberties were not only restored, they were increased.

The Revolutionary War gave birth to the United States Constitution including its Bill of Rights.

The Civil War gave birth to the Emancipation Proclamation as well as the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, extinguishing slavery and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws.

When World War I was done, the U.S. Constitution was amended again, this time with the 19^th Amendment mandating women’s suffrage.

After World War II, the armed forces of the United States were desegregated. That act was the seed that gave rise to a host of civil rights laws through the following years.

As time separates us from September 11, more and more people speak and think of the events of that date as past tense. That’s dangerous. The threat is not past tense nor can it be viewed as short term. The United States is the front line. We and what we’ve built are the prime targets. This nation has become the 38^th Parallel of Korea or the 17^th Parallel of Vietnam.

I was with the U.S. Government during the Vietnam War and made frequent trips to Saigon. On my first arrival, I was picked up by a member of the U.S. Embassy who asked if I had been to Saigon before. I told him I hadn’t. He said, "You’ll love it. It’s a wonderful city. There is beautiful French architecture and green parks. During the day the streets are busy with the bustle of street-sellers and motor bikes. You’ll love it. Oh, and by the way, you’ll never know there’s a war on — until you’re killed."

He advised me to get used to a different kind of normality. He was right.

Most Americans living today have lived only through wars in which any failure of ours would mean that a friendly state, an ally, could be defeated. That’s bad enough. But this is a war in which defeat would not only be the consequence of a friendly state, but the defeat of the United States.

President Bush told the nation the story of Todd Beemer, a passenger aboard Flight 93 on September 11, who said to fellow passengers, "Let’s roll!" Those two words meant that Todd Beemer was going to subject himself to the hell of trying to prevent the hijackers from attacking probable targets in Washington, D.C. Todd Beemer accepted, not the temporary reduction of some of his liberties, but the end of all his liberties — the end of his life. If he could marshal that resolve for the good of his country, the rest of us can accept the lesser and temporary inconveniences that are vital.

We, as Americans, are totally accustomed to what we have built as normality. It is a wonderful way of life unexcelled in any other country. It is difficult and frustrating to give up any of that normality, even for a moment. But we must insure that the next generation of Americans will not be denied what we have known. Nothing is worth the risk of losing this war. Nothing. After we win, the United States can then go back to the old normality and, following historical tradition, we will do it with even greater liberties than ever before.

Bruce Herschensohn is a member of the Center for Individual Freedom’s Board of Directors.

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