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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Legal Affairs: Ashcroft's 'Trust-Us' Routine Is Getting a Little Stale (November 20, 2001) Most troubling is his persistent refusal to disclose details about the people who are being detained. By Stuart Taylor Jr. On Books: Van-Loads of Campaign Fiction (November 20, 2001) Opinion columnist Tish Durkin reviews two books on pols and the pressies who cover them. Legal Affairs: A Nuclear Nightmare: It Could Happen Today (November 14, 2001) Why dwell on such horrors? Because it's past time to focus on the gravest dangers that we face. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Political Pulse: King of the World (November 14, 2001) Yes, money talks, but Giuliani's endorsement gave it something to talk about. By William Schneider. On Books: One Evil Conspiracy Is Missing (November 14, 2001) A review of Robert A. Goldberg's Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America. By Clive Crook. More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
Bush, the Volunteer CoordinatorPresident begins drumming up anti-terrorism tasks for Americans and U.S. allies to keep support strong by William Schneider .... When a month of fighting failed to produce the kind of dramatic results that we have now begun to see, the Bush Administration was concerned that public support for the war on terrorism may be wavering, especially overseas. So last week, the Administration opened a new front, the battle for public opinion. One tactic in that public relations battle is to remind the world of the nature of the enemy. When he addressed Eastern European leaders via satellite on November 6, President Bush drew parallels between the terrorists and the "repressive ideologies that tried to trample human dignity" in Europe. "Like the fascists and the totalitarians before them," the President said, "these terrorists ... try to impose their radical views through threat and violence." Bush dramatized the danger by warning that the terrorists are "seeking chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons." Osama bin Laden reinforced this point when he told a Pakistani newspaper: "We have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent." Western experts think that it is extremely unlikely that bin Laden's Al Qaeda possesses a nuclear capability, but Bush cautioned the United Nations on Saturday that the terrorists can be expected to use such weapons "the moment they are capable of doing so." Another Administration tactic is to make it clear that the United States is winning, even if the results are not always visible to average citizens. "We are destroying training camps, disrupting communications, and dismantling air defenses," the President told the nation last week. The capture of key cities, including Kabul, has given the Administration's campaign a much-needed boost. Polls show that the American public's support for the war on terrorism is actually holding strong, but there are danger signs. In a mid-September Gallup Poll, 41 percent of Americans expressed a great deal of confidence in the government's ability to protect them from future terrorist attacks. After a month of anthrax letters and no arrests for those attacks, that figure slipped to 25 percent in an early November Time poll. It was left for Attorney General John D. Ashcroft to make the claim that the United States is winning. "We have not suffered another major terrorist attack," he declared. "The home front has witnessed the opening battle in the war against terrorism, and America has emerged victorious." One can only hope the Attorney General never has to retract those words. Still another tactic is to try to give more people an active stake in the campaign. Psychologists know that if people become involved in an effort, they become committed to it. That's the theory behind the President's call last week for a new wave of voluntarism in America. "All of us can become a September the 11th volunteer by making a commitment to service," he said. Voluntarism is not quite the same as sacrifice. Aren't citizens supposed to sacrifice in wartime? Yes, but "this is a different war from any our nation has ever faced," the President said. In his view, refusing to change our way of life is a statement against terrorism. "Life in America is going forward," Bush said, "and ... that is the ultimate repudiation of terrorism." The government has not determined what it needs volunteers to do. Patrol borders? Guard nuclear power plants? Those crucial security tasks are best handled by professionals. "I've created a task force to develop additional ways people can get directly involved in this war effort," the President said. That task force is supposed to make recommendations within 40 days. The same theory of involvement lies behind the parade of world leaders visiting Washington: Give them a stake in this, too. France has committed 2,000 troops for sea patrols and air reconnaissance. Italy has pledge 1,000 troops, plus planes and warships. Germany is promising 3,900 troops, the first it has deployed outside Europe since World War II. Japan has sent two destroyers and a supply ship. Before September 11, the Bush Administration was defiantly unilateralist. The United States would go it alone on global warming and missile defense. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told a Senate hearing that the unilateralists are still around. They're uneasy with all this coalition-building, and they warn: "When you bring all these people together, don't you have to take into account all of their interests, and don't these coalitions sometimes hamstring the President?" The American public isn't worried the war effort will suffer, according to a poll taken this month for the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland (College Park). By nearly 3-to-1, Americans say it's better for more countries to join us in this effort, even if it means that the United States can't make decisions on its own. Bush doesn't mind either. Saturday, in his first address to the United Nations, he said: "Every nation in our coalition has duties.... The time for sympathy has now passed. The time for action has now arrived." Bush the unilateralist is no more. Now it's Bush the coalition builder. It's not clear that the United States really needs those German troops or Italian warships. But the United States does need other countries' political support. And the way to get it is to make it their war, too.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. |
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