Carpers need to cut leaders a little slack in fighting war

By Pete Waldmeir / The Detroit News

Some people seem to want it both ways as we dispatch our forces to eradicate the terrorist threat against this nation. On the one hand, they demand that our leaders do everything possible to protect us from a repeat of the kind of tragedy that occurred Sept. 11. But in the same breath they caution the people in power not to step on any toes or harm the sensibilities of any ethnic, religious or national groups or individuals in the process. I don't know what planet these folks are from, but things don't work that way when you have a national crisis of these proportions. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Joe Schmidt, the old Detroit Lions linebacker, once cautioned me to "remember that the pen is mightier than the sword ... unless you're in a sword fight." Well, my friends, we are about to launch a unique international sword fight. Now, I'm not suggesting that we should grant the generals absolute power, nor would I condone a wholesale trampling of all civil liberties under the guise of national security. What I am saying , however, is that we -- you, me, the public and the media -- ought to cut this nation's military and diplomatic leadership an extra measure of slack when it comes to demanding total and complete accountability for every action. I don't need to see their target list. I don't want to know whose phone they're tapping. I don't even much care if they give us a periodic body count -- high or low, ours or the enemy's. After our experiences in Vietnam, I wouldn't trust the numbers anyway. The last time this nation won a major military conflict outright was World War II (1941-46). We fought a draw in Korea (1950-53) and spent more than a decade in Vietnam and Southeast Asia before withdrawing in the 1970s. Some say we "won" Desert Storm a decade ago, but Saddam Hussein's still running Iraq. President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other leaders seem to be asking us to treat this impending quasi-war a lot like we did WWII, and that's not all bad. They say they'll do a lot of things they will neither tell us about in advance nor answer questions about when they are concluded. Critics are certain to howl and complain when detailed information and explanations are not forthcoming. In lesser circumstances I'd be right there alongside them, demanding answers. But there's a difference here. This is not some militant conservative conspiracy to snuff out our individual liberties. This country gets too much information as it is. Why use our freedoms against ourselves? The United States has never seen censorship and blatant spinning of the media like we had in World War II. People were jailed without warrants, private mail was opened and screened, bad news was buried and only victories made the papers. Photos of the carnage and U.S. battle losses never were printed. And you know what's funny? The commanders-in-chief who signed off on all that abominable secrecy as we rolled to victory were two of the nation's most liberal Democrats: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his successor, Harry Truman.

Pete Waldmeir's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in The Detroit News. Call him at (313) 222-2345 or send e-mail to PWaldmeir@aol.com.

-- (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 01, 2001