adagio  

 
For a number of years now ( 7 to be precise ) we have been engaged in something called the Global War on Terrorism, or GWOT for those that like the short form, and it seemed like the appropriate rallying phrase to galvanize a shell-shocked post 9/11 populace. After all, we've all heard of the "war on drugs", the "war on poverty", and we've come to accept these terms as a signal that our government was going to actively address a problem. Nobody ever considered it as something that anybody actually wins, but rather as something that we actively address in combatting the toll that it takes on our society.

However that PR strategy regarding our efforts on combatting terrorism has a serious and dangerous flaw in it. It has provided the administration with an opening that the other "wars" do not. It has provided the President with the permanent footing as Commander in Chief. The president has assumed powers that supercede the constitution on the basis of our being at war. The problem with this approach is that the enemy is so ill defined and so broad based that it can only be taken to mean a war against anybody that doesn't like us, or is unwilling to bow to our demands. Terrorism is a tactic. It's the method used by those that have no other means of dealing with a vastly superior force. This isn't an endorsement of terrorism. It's simply a fact which has been a part of warfare throughout history, and it's certainly a problem that we all have to deal with. However, declaring a war on this tactic is absurd. What it has done is to lead people to think that it's something that can actually be won. Our politicians seem to think that victory against a non-entity is actually possible and that taking measures that undermine and subvert the Constitution is perfectly fine in waging the patriotic war against something that will never surrender.

To knowingly commit our military to something that cannot be won is criminal. To tell the American people that we are "winning the war on terrorism" is completely misleading. Terrorism isn't going to disappear because we send our military to take it on head to head. To over-ride the constitution, ignore the law, and commit the nation to a war on a non-entity is an abuse of power and something that congress should never accept. When these bumper sticker phrases are used as an excuse to tear up the constitution there is a serious problem that any sane and rational person needs to examine. When that sane and rational person holds a seat in congress, I expect them to hold this absurdity up to the light of reason and demand an explanation for how the administration can justify the destruction of the democratic values that define who we are, in the name of a war on an improper noun.
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