For a few days last week, it was possible to embrace American optimism and to believe that, but for a few tweaks here and there, the Earth would continue to turn on its axis without interruption.
Then came Monday with the sort of portentous tidings that make Mondays forever our bane. Newspapers across the country led with the news that the Bush administration on Sunday had declared a “high risk” of terrorist attack.
Officials based the warning on unusually specific information that Al Qaeda operatives had conducted reconnaissance missions at certain sites, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup buildings in Manhattan; the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington; and Prudential Financial in Newark, N.J.
We have become like Israel, waiting for the next attack, no longer wondering if, but when. Or have we?
Not if you are a Michael Moore disciple and subscribe to the conspiracy theory popularly known as “Bush lied.” In which case fact and fiction are, like identical twins, difficult to tell apart.
In Moore’s world: (1) the only reason for going to war against Iraq was for oil and profit; (2) the Bush family’s longstanding friendship with the Saudi royals is part of a larger conspiracy to control the world via the Carlyle Group and Halliburton Co.; (3) the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed some 3,000 people on American soil were allowed to transpire so that all of the preceding could evolve.
And finally: Terror alerts such as the one announced early this week are strategically engineered for political gain, fictitious inventions of the evildoers in the Bush administration.
Although the New York Times reports that “few prominent Democrats” are charging President Bush with fear manipulation, cynical chatter began almost on cue. By noon Monday, an e-mail from a former Clinton administration official crossed my electronic transom to begin the charge.
Morris Reid, former aide to then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and now a managing partner of the Washington-based consulting firm Westin Rinehart Group, issued the following statement:
“Heightened security measures are in place today as the Bush administration attempts to steal post-Democratic National Convention thunder with a raised terror alert.
” … This is a blatant abuse of power and a clear-cut display of election year politics.”
Bush, it seems, is in the quintessential parental predicament of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” What if there were a terrorist threat and Bush said or did nothing? Damn him, as critics damned him for not connecting the dots before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. What if Bush issued a terrorist warning and nothing happened? Damn him again for instilling fear and, as some are insisting even now, manipulating emotion for political gain.
What, one wonders, is the alternative? Where does such cynicism lead? To a John Kerry and John Edwards victory in November? Then what? Do we trust terror warnings under a new administration? Do we cease to have terror threats because Al Qaeda will have succeeded in its mission of derailing Bush? Are we safer then?
Reality gets lost amid such cynicism and paranoia. We believe nothing if it comes from a Bush White House but believe everything if it comes from a Michael Moore dreamscape. Yet Moore, whose film has become the video generation’s Declaration of Disbelief, is demonstrably dishonest in his documentary.
In just one example, Moore flashes headlines across the screen about Florida’s contested 2000 election results. One purportedly from the Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph’s Dec. 19, 2001, issue reads, “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election.”
The only problem is, no such headline appeared on the front page that day. Instead, the headline ran in a different, smaller typeface above a letter to the editor on Dec. 5, 2001, as noted by Pantagraph columnist Bill Flick in a mid-July column.
Headlines that run with letters to the editor typically reflect the letter writer’s point and are not necessarily factual. But who cares about facts, or logic for that matter?
Except in the twisted logic of the bitterly partisan, there is no reason for Bush to fake terrorist threats, especially against financial institutions. When he needs economic growth and stability for re-election, no real-world benefit accrues to him from threats that could shake market confidence.
What is nearly as frightening as any terrorist chatter is a degree of cynicism that makes fact out of fiction, heroes of villains and Bush-hatred more compelling than appropriate distrust of and caution toward our enemies.
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E-mail: kparker@kparker.com
