IASPS - News Behind the News

October 26, 2001

Sampling the Headlines

The newspapers of October 26 were disturbing. A sample of headlines that reflect America ’s confusion over how to deal with the arrival of the Peace Process on its shores:

The New York Times: Antiterrorism Bill Passes ; U.S. Gets Expanded Powers Bayer Halves Price for Cipro, But Rivals Offer Drugs Free

The Washington Times: Israel Agrees to Partial Pullout; Will Depart Cities in West Bank

The Washington Post: Missile Defense Tests Are Put Off; U.S. Delay Averts Face-Off With Russia

Translations follow, taken individually and assessing these stories as a unit.

Expanded police power will apply equally to all Americans, meaning that civil liberties of innocent citizens will be ignored; meanwhile, security staffs in airports will perform time-consuming, invasive and ridiculous searches of Swedish grandmothers so as to evade accusations of racial profiling.

Private enterprise will be undermined by an absurd bunker mentality calling for Bayer, and surely others, to relinquish their right to do business in the normal way. Both of these developments indicate a nation in a panic, precisely the effect terrorists hope to create.

Meanwhile, the U.S. leans on Israel to make concessions to their al Qaida, i.e., Fatah, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad. Nothing new here; more blaming of victims and intellectual desertion of allies in favor of their enemies.

Finally, missile defense tests are put on hold. Perfect. Despite a recent poll sponsored by the Chicago Sun-Times indicating that 77 percent of Americans support a missile defense system, policy makers have chosen to delay radar testing essential to its deployment. The reason: hopes that the delay will make reaching arms control agreements with Russia easier when President Putin visits November 12.

The upshot: penalize law-abiding citizens, corporations, and allies. Hamstring those who would pursue protection for these entities with political correctness and diplomatic maneuvering. All in all, a very dispiriting set of responses to a threat against the very existence of the nation.