5/1/09

This week conservatives in Congress have begun a new effort to reclaim the political advantage on national security with an aggressive public relations push that Barack Obama is not keeping America safe.  But these claims were undermined yesterday by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s hyperbolic assertions that the Al Qaeda threat was comparable to that of Nazi Germany.  The tragic deaths of 3,000 Americans in the 9/11 attacks were an event the United States can never forget but they cannot be reasonably be compared to the devastating effects of World War II, which cost approximately 400,000 American lives and killed millions in Europe.  Moreover, Al Qaeda’s leadership remains holed up on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and while it has the capacity to launch attacks, it never had Nazi Germany’s capacity to invade and take over multiple states. 

Rice also stated that if an interrogation technique is approved by the President, by definition it is not torture.  This claim undermines America’s basic constitutional system of checks and balances.  It also makes us less safe.  Numerous military and intelligence specialists have come forward to say that the Bush policies were not worth the cost and that they act as a major recruiting tool for our enemies and undermine our moral standing and position of leadership around the globe.

The United States needs a healthy debate about our national security policies – but not one that is based on ad campaigns and Nixonesque rhetoric.   Willful misunderstanding and hyping of the dangers we face move us back toward the mistakes of the past instead of toward better ideas for the future.

Rice is alone among national security thinkers in equating al Qaeda threat with Nazi Germany.  Responding to a question from a Stanford University Student, Former Bush National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice argued that al-Qaeda posed a greater threat to the U.S. than Nazi Germany.  “STUDENT: Even in World War II facing Nazi Germany, probably the greatest threat that America has ever faced. --  RICE: Uh, with all due respect, Nazi Germany never attacked the homeland of the United States. -- STUDENT: No, but they bombed our allies. -- RICE: No, just a second, just a second. Three-thousand Americans died in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.”  In fact, roughly 400,000 American servicemen were killed during World War II, according to the National Archives, and the death toll in Europe numbered in the tens of millions.  Attacks on the U.S. at Pearl Harbor began the U.S.’s formal involvement in World War II.  Academic and policy experts lined up to debunk the comparison.  Patterson School of Diplomacy Professor Robert Farley points out, German naval attacks “sank approximately 600 US and Allied merchant vessels in and around US territorial waters,” and claimed the lives of “[a]pproximately 1500 American sailors.”  CATO Institute analyst (and veteran) Chris Preble points out that “As we strive to avoid a full-scale clash of civilizations, it is wise to keep exaggerated claims in perspective. Comparisons between the war on terrorism and the world wars are among those exaggerations. Claims that our national survival hangs in the balance, or that the terrorists pose an existential threat comparable to that of the Nazis or the Soviets, build pressure for policies that do not increase our security but do erode the very liberties that define us as a nation.”   And James Fallows has written:  “Al-Qaeda's hopes for fundamentally harming the United States now rest less on what it can do itself than on what it can trick, tempt, or goad us into doing.”  [Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 4/27/09. U.S. Casualties, WWII, National Archives. Robert Farley, 4/30/09. Chris Preble, 11/1/06.  James Fallow, 9/06] 

Rice and colleagues revive discredited Nixon view that the President has authority to interpret law however he sees fit.  Rice said of her role in authorizing waterboarding: “I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department's clearance,” and on waterboarding, added that "[w]e were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so, by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture."  But, as AP reported via Fox News, Rice made “the earliest known decision by a Bush administration official,” sanctioning the use of waterboarding.    As George Washington University legal scholar Jonathan Turley pointed out, Rice’s argument is no defense against complicity in the approval of acts of torture: “Article II, Section 3 of the Convention Against Torture expressly states ‘An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.’”  On Hardball, Turley elaborated : “This is the dividing line between tyranny and a democracy. That is, if a president can become law unto himself, that whatever he says has the fiat of authority, then you no longer have a democratic system. We rejected that a very long time ago, thank God. It defines us as a people. And Nixon learned very well that his theory of the law did not apply, and he found himself chased out of office and ultimately needing a presidential pardon.”  [Condoleezza Rice, 4/27/09. AP, 4/22/09. Jonathan Turley, 4/30/09. Jonathan Turley, 4/30/09]

Evoking a disgraced president and hyping threats to a level rejected by experts do not add up to a coherent strategy for keeping America safe.  Conservatives continue to lead with the talking point that Obama’s policy is dangerous for America. As CNN reported yesterday, “House Republican leader John Boehner released a lengthy Web video Thursday suggesting Democrats are not keeping Americans safe -- part of what GOP sources tell CNN is a renewed political effort to push a historically winning issue for Republicans: national security.”  But Condoleezza Rice’s comments yesterday and those of her former colleagues in recent weeks, have done much more to undermine their credibility than to further an intelligent debate on national security.  By stating that terrorism presents a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany, Rice demonstrated once again that conservatives don’t understand the threats that we face in the 21st century.  In a NY Times op-ed, historian Joseph Ellis points out that 9/11 did not threaten the actual survival of the republic as did the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War II, or the Cold War. Al Qaeda does not have the capability to annihilate the United States with nuclear weapons or invade.  Moreover, a raft of former intelligence and military officials have surfaced to explain how US torture and detention policies helped al Qaeda and other extremists more than they served America, and the officials who instituted these policies have had no answer. As Matthew Alexander, an Air Force Major and detainee interrogator, told Harper’s Magazine, “I listened time and time again to foreign fighters, and Sunni Iraqis, state that the number one reason they had decided to pick up arms and join Al Qaeda was the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the authorized torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay. My team of interrogators knew that we would become Al Qaeda's best recruiters if we resorted to torture.” [CNN, 4/30/09. Joseph Ellis, 1/28/06. Harper’s Magazine, 12/18/08]

What We’re Reading

Heavy fighting continues for a third day in Buner province as Pakistani troops try to oust Taliban forces. Spencer Ackerman looks at a Fox report stating that Gen. Petraeus is telling “people privately that the next two weeks  are a test of the Zardari government’s survivability.”

Three U.S. service members were killed in Iraq. 

European May Day rallies, are expected to be larger than usual this year on this traditional workers’ holiday/protest day, due to the economic crisis.

Cuba remained on the State Department’s recently released state sponsor of terrorism list, but with tempered language that may reflect the Obama administration’s interest in improving relations with Havana. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was photographed wearing an American flag lapel pin in a photo with an American congressional delegation last month.

Mexico has arrested 60,000 people over the past two years in the ongoing drug wars.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen visited Afghanistan and found daunting needs in the remote Zabul province.

Al Qaeda agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri pled guilty to conspiracy in federal court. AG Eric Holder emphasized that this shows “what we can achieve when we have faith in our criminal justice system and are unwavering in our commitment to the values upon which this nation was founded and the rule of law.”

Haji Bashir Zoorzai, an Afghan tribal leader convicted in an international drug trafficking conspiracy, was sentenced to life in prison despite his cooperation with American officials.

The U.N. calls on Israel to end all bulldozing of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem.

Iranians and others outwit internet censors in closed societies.

Commentary of the Day

Richard N. Hass argues against prosecuting the government officials who wrote the torture memos.

After Britain ended combat operations in Iraq, David Blair looks at whether life for Iraqis has improved in Basra.

Laurence Gostin examines how the WHO and the CDC are trying to fight the swine flu pandemic without the appropriate resources and authorities.

William Marling discusses censorship in Lebanon.