Losing the War… and More
by William P. Schaefer • Old Field

On September 14, 2001, speaking at the crater that was the World Trade Center, President Bush stated, “the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon.” Four months later, in the State of the Union, the president declared war on terrorism and the “Axis of Evil.” After five years, the loss of 3,000 more Americans and hundreds of billions of dollars, it is clear that we are losing the war, the Axis of Evil is prospering, and the people who knocked down those buildings continue their terror unabated.

• North Korea has developed some ten nuclear weapons, a missile delivery system, and sponsors terror worldwide.

• Iran, on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, arrogantly sponsors, along with Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and others, terrorist organizations, while developing a coalition with the Shiite dominated government of Iraq.

• Afghanistan has deteriorated into chaos with its government barely in control of Kabul, as the rest of the country is dominated by a reenergized Taliban, Al Qaeda, warlords, and heroin dealers.

• Al Qaeda, under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawarhiri, neither of whom has been brought to justice, has struck with impunity in the United Kingdom, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

• Iraq has degenerated into a sectarian civil war (which our government now concedes is causing more terrorism than it is stopping) in which 100 Iraqis per day are slaughtered and in which the incidence of torture, according to Manfred Nowak, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture and cruelty, exceeds the levels under Saddam Hussein.

Confronted with this litany of failure and a substantial majority of Americans rejecting this President—the neocons and radical right, from the safety of their civilian armchairs, urge more of the same, the further spilling of other Americans’ blood, and the use of torture (referred to in Orwellian double-speak as “aggressive interrogation techniques”), all the while questioning the patriotism of those who protest the insanity. They would be wise to remember the words of Arthur Schlesinger:

"Of all the decisions a free people must face, the question of war and peace is the most crucial. Before sending young Americans to kill and die in foreign lands, a democracy has a sacred obligation to permit full and searching discussion of the issues at stake. There is no obligation to bow down before an imperial presidency.”

Reprinted with permission from Suffolk Life, Vol. 46, No. 42, October 18, 2006, page 4.

William P. Schaefer served for fifteen years, as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U. S. Department of Justice prosecuting organized crime cases. He currently holds teaching positions in Political Science and Criminal Justice at Hofstra University, Dowling College, C.W. Post, and Suffolk Community College. He received a J.D., summa cum laude, from the American University Law School.