"Candidly Yours"

October 1, 2001

Bush Is Following The Play Book
by Linda A. Prussen-Razzano

On March 23, 2001, Raphael T. Perl of the Congressional Research Service’s Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division released a revised report on "Terrorism, The Future, and U.S. Policy." For those piqued enough to read this report, it should be renamed, "The Bush War On Terrorism Play Book." It carefully details every projected aspect of America’s response to a domestic terrorist attack, including the creation of a cabinet level "Homeland Security" position to coordinate the activities of the National Guard, F.E.M.A., and other overlapping agencies.

Get your hands on a copy, folks, and read it. You will see that the President’s tempered response is influenced by several years’ worth of studies, including how to handle the media. In short, Bush is not "winging" it; he’s following an established plan to the letter. This is not an attempt to besmirch his intellect; in truth, it shows his wisdom in not waging this war by the seat of his pants.

On the upside, the Cabinet level position replaces President Clinton’s Presidential Decision Directive 62, as well as Clinton’s April 6, 2000 designation of the Attorney General to lead these efforts effective October 20, 2000. PDD 62 was met with groans of disapproval because it created two additional positions at the National Security Council, which does not have congressional oversight.

Moreover, it reiterates a "Sense of the Senate" from P.L. 104-264. Ironically, P.L. 104-264 was entitled "To amend Title 49, United States Code, to reauthorize programs of the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes." This Sense of the Senates states "that if evidence establishes beyond a clear and reasonable doubt that any act of hostility towards any United States citizen was an act of international terrorism sponsored, organized, condoned, or directed by any nation, a state of war should be considered to exist or to have existed between the United States and that nation, beginning as of the moment that the act of aggression occurs."

Many liberal commentators have been extremely upset by the bipartisan cooperation Bush now enjoys; they need to restrain their angst. Congressional Democrats are following the law; a law, I might add, that no one raised objection to when Clinton signed it. According to this law, President Bush didn’t even need to ask Congress for a formal declaration of war. It was automatically assumed we were at war the moment the attack occurred and we could reasonably determine which parties were responsible.

A sad little freak show is developing in the mainstream media, where both the Left and the Right are pointing fingers of blame. Liberal college groupies with more education than sense are blaming President Bush’s recent foreign policy decisions as cause for the attack (as if terrorists really give a whit about the Kyoto Protocol or Global Warming - don’t laugh, I’m serious!). Reverend Falwell earns the prestigious Christian Conservative Foot In Mouth Award for the dumbest utterance by the Religious Right, while legions of Conservatives compile massive lists of the Clinton Administration’s obvious shortcomings and obfuscations. May I remind folks on both sides of the aisle that Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist monsters took shots at the World Trade Towers twice, during the start of both Administrations. Only Divine Intervention prevented us from going through the horror and mourning eight years ago.

Other attractions in the freak show are Jesse Jackson, who is desperately trying to reclaim any spotlight, even if it’s a flashlight; Bill Clinton, who is accosting folks on the street for no other reason than to insist he tried to stop bin Laden; Hillary Clinton, who’s pathetic antics during President Bush’s address to the Joint Session of Congress has earned her the prestigious Al Gore’s First Debate Performance Award; and a whole host of paranoid parties (on both sides) who insist the White House orchestrated this attack as a massive power grab.

Thank God, thank God, none of these people are in a position to call the shots now. America needs a leader with a clear head, a clear vision, and a clear sense of not just what is right – but righteous. We have that in President Bush and the array of educated, knowledgeable advisors on his team. Let him follow the play book it took years of research, experience, and brilliantly constructed thought to produce, instead of the short-term "flash in the pan" foreign policy responses we witnessed from the previous Administration.

Maybe, just maybe, this approach will make a difference. ***

© 2001 Linda Prussen-Razzano