Under the Banner of the 'War' on Terror (Page 3)

The $300 billion is only a beginning. Once Iraq is resolved, the Pentagon will need more money to replenish munitions and replace destroyed vehicles, but also to restore troop strength, as reservists and regulars opt out in droves. Iraq will surely leave behind a public distaste for pre-emptive war, but given the vast and unknowable "threat," it would be irresponsible for military leaders not to prepare for the next war and the next one after that. Meanwhile, a new generation of expensive weapons systems, inherited from cold war planning, is approaching the production stage, and costs are soaring. In other words, the Pentagon's budget crunch is returning with a vengeance. Based on already known commitments, the "war on terror" will add another $885 billion to federal deficits in the next ten years, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (more than enough to finance a system of universal healthcare). Congressmen suggesting that a revival of the draft may be needed are not hallucinating.

§ The domestic context of American society may eventually undergo the most drastic (and insidious) changes, if the current logic advances unchallenged. The quest for homeland security is heading, in ad hoc fashion, toward the quasi militarization of everyday life. So far more than $120 billion in new spending has been devoted to constructing domestic protections, but each new project merely demonstrates how incomplete the homeland security system is--and how impossible an airtight defense would be for an open and free society. Yet nobody in Congress wants constituents left unprotected. So government is pushed to formulate larger and more grandiose plans--exotic technological schemes for surveillance and ready-response to ward off more of the infinite possibilities, just in case. Addressing fear begets more fear. If danger might lurk anywhere, maybe everything must be protected and policed [see sidebar on page 16].

The security systems involve computers, cameras, remote sensors, electronic alarms and bomb-sniffing dogs, but also require old-fashioned political monitors--government agents watching people for hints of dangerous intentions. Washington is assembling a "unified watch list" of potential troublemakers--their identities contributed by every federal agency, names that will be shared with local and state law enforcement. Any motorist stopped by a patrol officer can be electronically checked out with the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center and held for questioning if the Feds desire. The initial list, Congress is informally advised, will contain the names of 120,000 citizens who, for one reason or another, might be regarded as a "threat." An "agro-terrorist" identified by the Agriculture Department could be someone who likes to set fires in national forests or maybe a political activist trying to save trees. Neither type is known to associate with Osama bin Laden.

"When does a watch list become a blacklist? That's the problem," ACLU legislative counsel Timothy Edgar explained. The "lists" are proliferating, and once your name is on one, it's extremely difficult to get off. The government has a "no-fly list," used by airlines to bar passengers from boarding planes (a source of many Kafkaesque episodes of mistaken identity). The government also has a "shippers' list" to block "suspects" from getting jobs at port terminals and aboard cargo ships. A new "Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System" is collecting more names by "mining data" from the voluminous personal records of consumers/employees/citizens. The FBI's long, sordid history of spying on and intimidating citizens--civil rights leaders, antiwar activists, political dissidents of the left and right--illustrates the possibilities.

§ Finally, the national economy is significantly altered too, because terrorism is industrial opportunity. Designing the software for new surveillance systems, building antiterror gadgets for homes and offices, developing new drugs to combat obscure biological attacks, hiring more guards and guard dogs--all can now be regarded as defense production. Boeing got a $1 billion no-bid contract to help airports and airlines organize their defenses. Marmion Air Services is selling explosion-proof air conditioning and refrigerators ("It truly is a very exciting time in the company's history," said CEO Wilbert Marmion). Taser International's stock soared last year from $4.04 to $82.96. The Taser stun-gun can incapacitate any terrorist who gets closer than twenty-one feet.

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