Extension of Remarks: Do we need a war president?
The lead op-ed in today's Buffalo News is a provocative one from the seemingly omnipresent Fareed Zakaria [left] of Newsweek/The Washington Post/CNN.
He points out how President Bush has claimed so many extraordinary powers for himself and his 
administration on the grounds that he is "a war president." Even most of the criticisms of the administration by Democrats are more in the vein of attacking Bush's conduct of the war, suggesting his missteps have increased the danger of terrorism rather than reduced it. They don't question the suggestion that we are in great danger.
Zakaria does question it. Life in America hasn't changed that much. Violence and terror are down. Al Qaida hasn't come anywhere near taking over the Muslim world, much less the rest of the planet. Even the CIA says the terror networks are on the ropes.
In fact, America is an extremely powerful country, with a unique and extraordinary set of strengths. The only way that position can truly be eroded is by its own actions and overreactions — by unwise and imprudent leadership. A good way to start correcting the errors of the past would be to recognize that we are not at war.
Elsewhere:
* A review of Zakaria's new Sunday morning talk show, with the necessary Tim Russert mention, from The Los Angeles Times.
* Example of how the Boy Who Cried Wolf Administration isn't going to be believed so easily in the future: A federal appeals court known for a conservative bent has rejected Pentagon claims that it can hold someone as an enemy combatant just by "saying it thrice," after Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits."
* At the Philly Daily News, Will Bunch tells the story of CBS war correspondent Lara Logan, who one minute was complaining that the American media have forgotten to cover Iraq, and the next minute is embroiled in a cheap sex scandal that may or may not have any substance to it. Payback?
* Whether this is a war or not, it has become more deadly to be standing in the middle of whatever it is in Afghanistan than whatever it is in Iraq.
--George Pyle/Editorial Writer
