Political Communication blog

Extraordinary Measures

Say what?

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.

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In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote in the memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States."

This claim was viewed as so extreme that it was essentially (and secretly) revoked—but not until October of last year, seven years after the memo was written and with barely three and a half months left in the Bush administration.

Why is it that an event, while horrific and tragic, has been allowed to so thoroughly dominate our national discourse for so long, that we were on the precipice of giving up that which makes us the United States of America? It has been said many times (and shouted down, because it usually comes from people of the likes of Michael Moore) that dying by an act of terrorism is about as likely as, I dunno, dying by a combination of rattlesnake and black widow spider bites. That wasn't the comparison used, but you get the point.

Terrorism, while a constant concern, is not THE concern of our country. All the lives, money and resources spent (so far) fighting the unwinnable and unending "Global War on Terror" could have been put to so much better use.