War Versus Civil Liberties

Ah yes, there was a "woman's march for peace" today. That makes sense-stand up for a movement that would veil them and stone them if they have sex outside of marriage (or if they are raped) and otherwise provide them with a firmly enforced second-class status. And given that many opponents of war are warning that al Qaeda will strike if we invade Iraq, I guess it should be time for them to concede a link between Iraq and the Islamofascists.

These are the most extreme, of course, those who defend our enemies and wish them victory even as they go home at night comforted by the notion that we will not lose. Others decry our pending war against Iraq (it better be pending, I think we have made a terrible-though hopefully not grave-mistake in giving Iraq another deadline. Hopefully the French veto will save us from this mistake), unable to see the link between an anti-American despot with weapons of mass destruction and anti-American terrorists who dream of having weapons of mass destruction. Some of the "toughest" of these opponents say we should take the money we will spend destroying Saddam and plow it into homeland defense. We should, they say, pull back into fortress America.

Yet at the same time, these same people decry any effort to increase security at home, crying out that civil rights are being eroded. And they have a point. As long as we fight our enemies our civil liberties will be reduced. That is what happens in war. One of the mundane aspect of this threat level hit me yesterday. I received a rejection letter from a defense journal for an article I submitted (oh well, I'm one for two for the submissions I made in the fall). What really struck me were the two copies of my paper that they returned. They were yellowed. Then I remembered, oh yeah, as a government outfit they would have to zap every mail package with whatever device they use to neutralize Anthrax. This process yellows the paper.

This is just one of the prices we pay for defending against terrorists. And if we are to pull back into fortress America, how many police and soldiers will be needed on our streets? How many questions will we need to answer as government security people question us wherever we move? How many public places will be closed off to the public to keep terrorists from destroying our monuments and buildings?

Loss of privacy and freedom are the prices we will pay for letting our enemies live to plot against us. And every time they strike, we will crack down more. By sitting on the defensive, we guarantee that our enemies will eventually strike us successfully. Defense can only slow the pace, not end the attacks against us. Would these opponents of war say that we should do nothing to prevent attacks? Will they say that exploding malls and occasional plagues are the price we should pay to arrive at the airport five minutes before our flight?

If we want our liberties back fully, if we want the luxury of not having our mail irradiated because nutballs would kill us by mail, we must take the offensive and go after our enemies. Al Qaeda and the states that support them because of their common hatred of America must be destroyed.

Then we can debate our civil liberties and go on with our lives.

On to Baghdad. Our lives and freedom really do count on it.