Fight Both Terrorism and Inverse Terrorism
From The Left
by Joseph Waldman
26 September 2001

You can't help wondering, in the wake of that horrible day two weeks ago, just what went wrong here. Why the United States didn't see this coming--why the military wasn't on higher alert outside its very own headquarters--why we failed to take the idea of "terrorism" seriously until it was too late.

These aren't questions easily answered, if at all. But I've been hearing a lot of bad talk in the last two weeks, venomous shouts about how it was our own damn fault, that our foreign policy mistakes are coming back to haunt us, and that right now is the perfect time to attack the Bush administration for its shortcomings.

I am a civil libertarian, but this talk borders on treason, just as bad as Falwell's and Robertson's from the right. It angers and disgusts me how hordes of people, who should know better, are swept along by the hysteria of certain demagogic leaders, blissfully and dangerously ignorant of history and diplomatic realism.

Now is absolutely the worst time to attack our government. In peacetime, criticism is healthy, and keeps things sane. But national unity is crucial right now. I hesitate to say "nationalism," of course, but by national unity I mean something stronger than the day-to-day bonds that existed before Sept. 11--and for anyone to use precious time and resources to sow discord and flail about with personal grievances is a terrible crime.

Sure, we screwed up. A lot of our foreign policy during the Cold War, and immediately thereafter, was outrageous, idiotic, or simply wrong, even filtered through realpolitik. Vietnam, case in point; and I can't see the Gulf War as anything but as a dirty jingoistic oil endeavor.

But that doesn't really matter right now. Once all the fighting, whatever it's going to entail, is over, fine. We can fuss and whine and hustle all we want. That's part of the American way of life, too, and I would never deny anybody these rights. Right now, though, we've been attacked, and I defy anyone to cross the line and say that what happened on Sept. 11 was justified in any way.

These words may sound a little strident. I don't intend them to be. But these are extraordinary times, and they call for some extraordinary statements. So now, dear reader, comes the most surprising statement you'll ever read in this column:

George W. Bush is doing an outstanding job as President of the United States, and I'm glad we've got him right now.

We all thought he was a puffball, and he may yet be in some areas. We all know there were some dirty politics going on behind the scenes that put him where he is. And eighty-five percent of the time he still sounds like Yogi Berra on his worst day.

None of this matters. The simple fact is that no American can do anything but rally behind the President, whoever he may be, in a time of war. It doesn't matter how much you disliked him before; to now try to undo what was done last November would tear the nation apart in a matter of days. And Bush is looking less scared and more "Presidential" with every day that passes.

Bush is no dummy, in that he knew he was weak in certain areas, most notably the whole of foreign policy. So he assembled a top-notch team to advise him. Whether or not you like their histories or personalities, you can't deny that Cheney, Powell, and Rumsfeld know how what to do in a crisis situation like this. They're there in the Situation Room, advising Bush--who after all is only the top executive in a complex federal bureaucracy, not some penny-ante dictator--and that makes me feel a lot better.

This is still a civilian-run operation, which is most important; the troika has kept Bush a good distance from the Joint Chiefs, whom I don't trust and who undoubtedly would try to run roughshod over their own boss. But for anyone to suggest that Bush, Cheney, Powell, or Rumsfeld are in this for the blood lust and are going to wreak some kind of arbitrary military holocaust on Iraq or Afghanistan obviously has no grip on reality.

"Politics stops at the water's edge" isn't an empty saying, especially not when it's a defense operation in our own waters. Democrats are rallying behind the President now just as Republicans rallied behind Franklin Roosevelt in the Second World War.

The FDR analogy is an intriguing one. Far be it for me to make inappropriate use of my political patron saint, but people often don't remember that Roosevelt was seen, even until his third term, as a political lightweight, a gentrified aristocrat, certainly not an intellectual, who got by simply on charm and delegated too much for his own good. They forget that appearances can belie abilities.

That's also the critical mistake that the enemy, whomever it may be, is bound to make. The United States from afar looks like a flabby and corrupt empire, scattered in all sorts of ways and frightened of any sudden change. Maybe we are an empire. I can't say for sure. But I really do like the cowboy imagery, and I know it's a lot more than posturing. And this Phoenix Empire in the last two weeks has pulled itself from the ashes, and is rising to save the world. I am an atheist and a cynic, and I never thought I'd be comfortable with these words, but "God bless America."