It no longer looks like if, but when Iran comes into possession of nuclear weapons. This will bring us one step closer to the day when Osama Bin Laden, or someone like him, gets their hands on a nuke. I know, I know, Sunni don’t like Shia. But hatred of the Jews, hatred of the U.S., and a desire for nukes are things they have very much in common. This situation gives me great cause for concern. If I were President of the United States, I would hardly be thinking about anything else.
What bounds there are on the President’s authority in a time of war depends on the severity of the threat, as I’m sure John Adams and Abraham Lincoln would agree. Adams went too far. Lincoln didn’t. Adams used the threat to national security, which was real, to attempt to crush his political opposition with the Alien and Sedition Act. Does any reasonable person think Bush is doing that? I think the real disagreement is about whether we are really in a war for our national survival, and for the survival of Western civilization. Or not. The NSA has been data-mining phone and email communications for a lot longer than George Bush has been in office. It would be a gross dereliction of duty if they were not. I am not bothered at all by this. My freedoms are being threatened all right, but not by the American government. This whole kerfuffle is being politically manufactured by the New York Times and the Democratic Party, which is odd, because it’s very stupid politics.
Dick Morris has a good column today in which he explains that the Democrats are misunderstanding the isolationist bloc in the U.S., which he says is about 35%. Isolationists are against the war, but they are in favor of the Patriot Act and of wiretapping by the NSA. Isolationists are not all liberals. They are pretty much half and half, and they are against foreign involvement and for domestic protection. Add them to those who, like myself, believe that there is no domestic protection without foreign involvement, who support the war in Iraq, and you have a substantial majority who are not going to get their undies in a twist about the NSA spying on suspected terrorists.
The Democrats may be ready to commit suicide, but I don’t think the American people have quite reached that point.