Can we ensure the safety of the nation, yet protect the civil liberties of Americans? Can we secure the homeland, yet guarantee the rights of detainees on foreign soil? Can we retool our government for an uncertain future, yet maintain our democratic principles?
The need to come to consensus on these issues grew more urgent as the old year slipped into the new.
While Illinois Issues prepared to publish this edition — the last in our 30th anniversary lineup — the nation's leaders were renewing debate over the rationale for the war in Iraq, the moral and practical implications of using torture to acquire intelligence, the extent of presidential powers and restrictions on domestic spying.
And some leaders were revisiting our failure to prepare for terrorist attacks before September 11, 2001, and in the years since.
Last month, as the members of the 9/11 Commission met for a final time, former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, one of five Republicans on the panel, warned that terrorists will attack this nation again. Still, he argued, we allow political gridlock to stymie action.
"The country has to come to grips with the fact that we live in a far different world than the world in which most of us grew up, received our education, understood our place in America and understood America's place in the world," Thompson told his fellow commissioners, families of the 9/11 victims and C-Span's audience. "All of that has changed."
"The country has to come to grips with the fact that we live in a far different world than the world in which most of us grew up, received our education, understood our place in America, and understood America's place in the world." - James Thompson at the 9/11 Commission's final session December 2005
He's right. The world has changed. The nation is changing, too. Will Illinois? We would argue that it will — and has. As do all Americans, Illinoisans face threats and opportunities in the New Year. We are among those fighting in Iraq. And we will have to prepare for potential attack with our share of federal homeland security dollars.
We also face fundamental questions as we head into 2006. Here are a couple: What will we allow to be done in our name? And who and what should America become in the 21st century?
There are no easy answers. So in the seasonal tradition of must-read lists for the New Year, Illinois Issues offers a few suggestions to help put these questions into perspective. The list is short, and idiosyncratic.
We suggest beginning with The 9/11 Commission Report, or at least the Executive Summary. The context it provides on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Afghanistan should make this required reading.
Fair warning, though. This is one scary document. The descriptions of what happened inside the planes on the morning of September 11, 2001, are difficult to read, but hard to set aside, no matter the lateness of the hour.
In fact, the lateness of the hour is a subtext. The bipartisan commission concluded we weren't even prepared to exploit the terrorists' mistakes.
Among their recommendations is better congressional oversight of intelligence activities, an especially poignant concern, given recent controversy on that point.
Legal restrictions on domestic spying by the National Security Agency — at the heart of a late-December political flare-up — were signed by former President Jimmy Carter. As it happens, his recent book is the second suggestion on our list of relevant reads.
Though Carter doesn't say so, Our Endangered Valuesimplies that, in an effort to protect ourselves from enemies, we are in danger of becoming like them. He warns of fundamentalism in religion and in government, the blending of the two and the consequent impact on our foreign policy.
To get the other side of the argument, here's our third suggestion: The Neocon Reader. This collection of essays aims to explain the neoconservative attitudes on a range of policies. It does a good job of explaining President George W. Bush's approach to foreign affairs, including his shift to pre-emptive war.
Here's an excerpt from the essay by Condoleezza Rice, now Bush's secretary of state: "There has never been a moral or legal requirement that a country wait to be attacked before it can address existential threats."
Happy New Year's reading.
Here's the list
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. The report and its easily digested Executive Summary are available for downloading on C-Span's Web site, along with the program of the commissioners' unofficial final meeting, which aired December 5. The federal panel was composed of five Democrats and five Republicans, including former Illinois Gov. James Thompson. Their report provides context on Islamic terrorism, explains why we weren't ready for the 9/11 attacks and recommends ways to prevent and prepare for future attacks.
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter, Simon and Schuster, 2005. Carter, a Democrat, was president from 1977 to 1981. His tenure ended, in part, because Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini encouraged Iranian militant supporters to hold 52 members of the U.S. embassy staff hostage for 14 months. In this, Carter's 20th book, he warns of religious and government fundamentalism in this country and argues against blurring the line between politics and faith. He assesses the "distortion" of America's foreign policy, the nation's move to pre-emptive war and torture of detainees.
The Neocon Reader, edited with an introduction by Irwin Stelzer, Grove Press, 2004. This collection of essays by key writers and thinkers of the neoconservative "persuasion" examines the historical roots and intellectual underpinnings of neocon approaches to domestic and foreign policies. Stelzer attempts to define neocon and debunk fears and fantasies about the power of neocon attitudes inside and outside of government. Among the essayists: William Kristol (on the relationship between national interest and global responsibility); Condoleezza Rice (on President George W. Bush's national security strategy); and John Bolton (on weapons of mass destruction).
See also
• "Who has the power?" Illinois Issues, November 2005, page 26. An essay on scholarship about the president's powers to start and prosecute war.
• "What will we give up?" Illinois Issues, June 2005, page 14. A report on the conflicting interests in security and privacy as Congress began deliberations on renewing portions of the USA Patriot Act.
• "At war with the Constitution," Illinois Issues, February 2003, page 26. An essay on civil liberties in wartime and President Abraham Lincoln's administration.
• "Terrorism's cost hits home," Illinois Issues, May 2002, page 14. A report on Illinois' efforts to prepare for potential terrorism attacks.
Peggy Boyer Long can be reached at Peggyboy@aol.com.
Illinois Issues, January 2006
