THE WAR is dead. Long live the war. This appears to be the attitude of the current Bush administration. George Bush Sr. oversaw the end of the Cold War. Bush II - not just the president, but also the mood of America as a whole - revives many of that era's worst aspects. Cold War misinformation, secrecy and witch-hunts are combined with features of a "hot" war in the new war on terrorism, which might be called the Lukewarm War.
In a Lukewarm War, American soldiers go to foreign countries to fight and die, and governments fall without the United States' having officially declared war on them. Journalists who go to these nations may lose their lives as well, but the American government will not help them to inform we the people about what is happening.
Instead, foreign war correspondents are held at gunpoint and trapped in warehouses. President Richard Nixon tried to shut down the press in the name of "national security," and the Supreme Court said he couldn't. Neither can this administration, whether in regard to foreign policy in Afghanistan or domestic energy policy with Enron.
Not only does our government obstruct freedom of information, it contemplates destroying the meaning of the phrase by putting out misinformation. Fortunately, the outcry over the Office of Strategic Influence forced Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to shut it down. Still, even the proposal to have our government deliberately spread false news to the press disrupts the proper status of the United States as a force for truth. Lies are for bad guys, not good guys.
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Secrecy applies not only to the press and the people - it is the rule for our representatives in Congress as well. Last Friday, The Washington Post reported the existence of a "shadow government" to backup executive agencies, a plan originating in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Cold War fears of nuclear attack. Last Saturday, it was reported that members of Congress did not know of the shadow government's existence.
This is absurd. If the entire executive branch, including the vice-president, did get wiped out, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) would be our president. Imagine his surprise when the shadow government emerges from its bunkers. "Hi, we're the new executive branch you're going to be heading!"
Some disgruntled members of the federal legislature are beginning to raise a protest. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, threatens to stop signing blank checks for defense spending unless the administration becomes more forthcoming about what it is doing with the money.
Congressmen question the administration at their peril, however. Even Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-S.D.) mild comment that the administration needs to provide Congress with a "clearer understanding" of the war's direction drew the ire of Republicans.
Here's what some of them had to say. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mo.): "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field?" Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.): Daschle's "divisive comments have the effect of giving aid and comfort to our enemies." This sounds like the rhetoric of the 1950s and 1960s; conservatives told us then that the civil rights movement's critique of America weakened the country and made it vulnerable to Communism.
Although gamesmanship is a constant in Washington, the attempt to make the war on terrorism partisan territory is disgusting. Constitutionally mandated congressional oversight does not disappear in times of war. The attempt to paint senators who are doing their job as "unpatriotic" reveals how low some politicians will go to score points - particularly in an election year. The United States takes strength from its Constitution, not from dictatorship.
However, the government is not the only American institution that sounds reminiscent of the Cold War. But now, instead of hunting out the Commies among us, we are digging for anyone with even the most remote link to terrorism. Last September, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly suggested that the University of South Florida "may be a hotbed of support for Arab militants," and called it "a very disturbing situation." In an interview with USF professor Sami al-Arian told him: "If I was the CIA, I'd follow you wherever you went."
USF, instead of defending its professor, decided his presence was disruptive and began the process of firing him. Gov. Jeb Bush (R) supported this. New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof notes that Florida has acted similarly in the past, with a 1962 state committee "searching the universities for the witches of that era: atheists, leftists, gays, feminists" ("Putting Us to the Test," Mar. 1).
Until our institutions work in genuine partnership with a well-informed people, America will continue to slide toward a state of affairs that resembles our enemies more than our ideals. The Cold War is dead, and good riddance. The marks it left on our country, from the controversy over the Oscars' honoring a blacklist informer, to the mistrust of the president engendered by Johnson's secrecy in Vietnam, will take time to erase. Resurrecting Cold War tactics won't help.
We need less flag-waving and more Constitution-upholding; fewer cries of "Unpatriotic!" and more honest answers to reasonable questions. The Lukewarm War should not be a tepid replay of the past.
(Pallavi Guniganti's columns appear Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at pguniganti@cavalierdaily.com.)
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