Consequences of the War On Terrorism
By William K. Shearer
Constitution Party Chairman Emeritus
December 2001
In a passage in the Midrash, a Jewish sage tells us:
"There is a divine covenant in everyone’s heart: to love his native soil – despite its climate."
America is a country of great beauty and productivity, blessed by freedoms, political, religious, and economic. It is easy to love America. Unfortunately it isn’t always as easy to love the politicians who are running it.
With only one voice of dissent in the entire Congress, that body has given the President the authority to use what is apparently unlimited force against "nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned or in any way participated in the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States." That force has now been unleashed in Afghanistan in a war the ultimate dimensions of which cannot readily be calculated.
Nevertheless, some of the consequences are already manifest, and they are affecting virtually every aspect of American life. Consider these impacts:
Civil Liberties
In the name of defending freedom, Americans are now giving up their civil liberties, and their rights of privacy, to a government being made all powerful.
Congress has enacted, and the President has signed, legislation embracing new sweeping police powers. Describing the bill, the Knight Ridder News Service reported:
"The legislation would make it easier for federal terrorism investigators to wiretap phones - - including cell phones - - in more than one state simultaneously.
"Computer communications would be fair game for federal monitoring for the first time, as investigators could track the sending and receiving of e-mail and Internet connections….
"Investigators also could conduct unannounced searches of property owned and occupied by suspected terrorists, and could share information from federal criminal probes with intelligence agencies for the first time."
These provisions have a four year sunset clause, but the administration sought permanent authority without any time limit. Americans will find that once their liberties have been surrendered to government, restoration of those liberties will be a dubious prospect at best.
Nor, in practice, will the government’s new powers be limited to the "war" on terrorists. A Chicago Tribune report notes that:
"Though it is billed as an anti-terrorist measure, some of the bill’s provisions apply to all federal criminal suspects and give officials broad latitude in implementing them."
Over time, these powers will be more and more turned against citizens with no connection to terrorism. It was not long ago, for instance, that laws adopted to combat organized crime were turned against persons picketing abortion clinics, a result no one anticipated when the laws were enacted.
As columnist Joe Sobran points out:
"We are told that our freedom is under attack. And it is. But Osama bin Laden can’t abridge our freedoms; only our own government can do that - - by giving the FBI and CIA new powers, for example, and by imposing new restrictions on airlines and travelers, banks and financial institutions, and on private communications. It may yet force us all to carry identity cards.
"The prospect of a government that treats all its citizens as criminal suspects is more terrifying than any terrorist. And even more frightening is a citizenry that can accept the surrender of its freedoms as the price of ‘freedom’."
Moral and Social Concerns
In the wake of the September 11 terrorist assault, the President has repeatedly called for national unity. Certainly Americans are united in their sorrow over the thousands of lives lost to terrorism, and in their resolve to punish the perpetrators, and to protect the nation from further terrorist acts.
National unity to combat terrorism, however, is not properly used to suppress legislative remedies for the serious moral and social ills that face the people of the country. An example of "unity" pushed too far is provided by the following story disseminated by the Hearst News Service, published on October 12, 2001 under the headline, "GOP kills effort to ban pill at school clinics." The article states:
"In a victory for family planning advocates, House Republican leadership yesterday killed legislation that would have blocked school-based health clinics from giving ‘morning after’ contraception pills to adolescent girls.
"Rep. Melissa A. Hart, R-Pa., an ardent abortion foe, was making headway in tacking the ban to an appropriation bill moving through Congress.
"But GOP House leaders yanked it off the agenda, fearing it would ignite partisan tensions and throw the House into gridlock when Congress is trying to figure out how to respond to terrorist attacks….
" ‘We have rules that say schools can’t even give little girls an aspirin, yet schools are giving them morning after pills, which can have dangerous side effects,’ Hart said. ‘This is a scary health issue. Parents should know what kind of things are being done to children at school.’
"Hart said the Republican leadership asked her to drop the proposal because it could delay action on the crucial appropriations bill."
So moral and social legislation is now held hostage to the President’s "war" on terrorism. It ought to bring blushes of shame to the religious leaders who have embraced the current leadership in Washington.
Economic Issues
There are also vast economic consequences of the President’s new war on terrorism.
The Federal bailout of the airlines alone will cost the taxpayers at least $15 billion. The bailout legislation, enacted with only 1 dissenting vote in the Senate and 54 dissenters in the House, includes $5 billion in direct grants to the airlines, and $10 billion in loan guarantees.
On October 10, Associated Press reported:
"A provision in the airline bailout bill says the federal government will give preference… in loan guarantees to airlines that offer ‘warrants or other equity instruments that will allow the federal government to participate in the gains of the company’.…
"The government has a history of accepting equity in a publicly traded company in exchange for loan guarantees."
So, the government is now going into the airline business as a corollary to the "war" on terrorism. The partnership between government and big business is the essence of the fascist state. And who will profit from this "partnership" at the taxpayers’ expense? Why, the airline big shots of course. As Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin pointed out during the House debate on the bailout bill:
"This proposal says that if [an airline executive] made more that $300,000 last year, you cannot earn more than you made last year and have your company eligible for this loan guarantee. That means that one airline CEO can collect $13 million in compensation next year. Another, $11 million. Meanwhile for workers, there is zip, zero."
In the same vein, Rep. Peter De Fazio of Oregon protested:
"Even if this bill passes, 100,000 people in jobs directly related to the airline industry will lose their jobs. We have heard that from the CEOs who essentially wrote this bill. They are still going to fire or lay off 100,000 people. There is not one penny in this bill of accommodation for those people, for their insurance, for their mortgage, or anything else. Not one penny.
"There are tens of thousands of other people who work in related businesses: travel agents, car rental agencies, hotels. The list is endless. There is not one penny for those people of assistance in this bill. Not an emergency disaster declaration. No help with their payments to the bank. Not one penny."
Larry Elder, writing in "Investor’s Business Daily," asks:
"If Congress bails out the airlines, what about others directly affected by terrorist attacks? Certainly, the tourism business, hotels, restaurants and financial services all took direct hits. CNN’s Garrick Utley estimates that in New York alone the attack closed permanently or temporarily disrupted some 43,000 businesses from large to mom and pops. Do they get aid too?"
The truth is that wars produce many casualties, and the war on terrorism is already costing Americans their civil liberties, plus untold billions of their tax dollars. Moral concerns are an additional casualty of demands for wartime unity.
Yes, it is very easy to love this country, and what it stands for, but it isn’t nearly as easy to love the politicians in Washington who are circumscribing American liberties, slapping morality in the face, and bailing out airlines and their multi-million dollar CEOs at taxpayers expense.
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William K. Shearer, whose tenure as Chairman of the Constitution Party ended in 1999, is a resident of Lemon Grove, California
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