A Democratic National Security Statement

The past few days have proven a point which the DNC appears to have ignored. Terrorism is not the evil of our time it is war. War is the evil for which all other means of malice can prosper and multiply. However the GOP have, as they often do, muddled the issue and blanketed all conflict in a tight corset of communism? liberalism? terrorism? However, the issue of terrorism must be reframed by the DNC if they are going to have a chance of winning any new seats in congress, not to mention the White House.

As Joseph J. Ellis astutely notes, in an op-ed piece in The New York Times earlier this year, that the terrorist menace is not even part of the historical top tier of threats to national security; he proceeds to run down a list of wars, beginning with independence and ending with WWII. Concluding that terrorism “does not threat (en) the survival of the American republic, even though the terrorists would like us to believe so.”

Terrorist’s clear weapon is fear. This may seem a tautology but terrorism is meant to terrorize. If terrorism changes the fabric of a nation into a fear driven, paranoid, delusional and authoritarian regime then it has the upper hand. Fear will not save us from another terrorist attack; fear will only lead to a greater sense of hopelessness and national fatigue. We are bound to have another terrorist attack in this country. The attack may kill more people and rip through buildings but they can never achieve their ultimate goal of democratic collapse without a nation’s help.

It is easy, almost too easy, to end freedoms in a democracy. When government representatives begin to frame issues of freedom in life or death terms it is easy to get lost in their illogic. For example, Sen. Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas have stated that civil liberties are not important after your dead. This is a sharp turn from a core American Value: liberty. Liberty, the fire that lighted the revolutionaries of 1776 or as Mr. Henry pronounced with great foresight and allegiance to inalienable rights: “Give me liberty or give me death”. Not the other way around.

The issue of terrorism must be framed in its historical position, not as the great evil of our time. It is not the great evil of time, the collapse of core democratic values is the evil of our time. The fear peddling of scared politicians is a greater evil than any terrorist outfit. As problems mount in the Mid and Far East we are blinded by fear. We begin to include all conflicts as part of the ‘war of terrorism’; we neglect to see the subtle nature of geopolitical politics. The subtle nature which we have been so judiciously able to see, from Nazi Germany to Soviet Russia, your greatest weapon against these foes is to understand them as separate events. A corresponding thread of violence, but each event needs to be dealt with in a specific manner.

The GOP has created a terrorist myth. It is the great cataclysmic evil lurking in our phones and parading in our email. It is everywhere and no where, it comes in the middle of the night and plants apocalyptic bombs. It is the great challenge of our time. However, these jingoistic slogans mask the underlying debilitation of our rights as free people. Look back into our history for strength; for we have overcome so much more. Security and liberty are not mutually exclusive and the latter is the gatekeeper to the former.