A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

In a democracy the power of government is circumscribed by the will of the people. In our Constitutional democracy the mechanisms by which the people may express their common will are codified, delimited and protected. The First Amendment to our Constitution in its enumeration of freedoms of speech, of the press, of conscience, of assembly, and of petition for redress protects an unenumerated freedom that is more basic and essential to democracy – the Freedom of Inquiry.

Each of the enumerated freedoms serve to enhance and protect each citizen in his right to inquire of his government; to be informed as to the actions that government takes in the name of the nation; and to demand that the government provide a justification for the action that it determines to take. That right to question and to demand answers is essential to the proper exercise of the highest office in the nation – that of voter – in that constitutionally mandated biennial review of the acts of the governors.

No power of government more directly affects each citizen than the power to make war. The cost in lives and the cost in treasure fall on each household, if the impact is unequally distributed. That is why the decision to wage war on behalf of the nation is strictly delimited by our Constitution and carefully distributed between the legislative and executive branches.

The right of the people to inquire imposes a duty upon the governors to answer and to be forthcoming, candid and complete in providing to the citizens the information on which the decision to resort to war is made. For the first time in its history the President of the United States has promulgated a doctrine of preemptive war. For the first time in its history the United States proposes to resort to war without the intended foe having provoked the act by an act of naked aggression. It is incumbent therefore that the President must first make the case that the intended foe poses a Clear and Present Danger to the security of the United States and that the case he makes is supported by Clear and Convincing evidence.

That case must be made not only to the people of the United States but also to the people of the world if this nation is to retain its posture as a protector of freedom and a beacon of liberty to the world. The case cannot be constructed of conjecture and inference upon conjecture. It cannot be built upon the shifting sand of “could” and “might”. Much more than posturing and playground catcalls are required from the President’s bully pulpit. When a planned war will commence by raining massive destruction on a city of 4.8 Million men, women and children nothing less than compelling direct evidence that Iraq represents a Clear and Present Danger to this nation’s security and the peace of the world will do. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind demands it.