Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

08/08/05

U.S. government officials, both politicians and career bureaucrats, always imply that a tradeoff exists between security and liberty and that we cannot have both. This view, however, depends on buying into key erroneous assumptions made by those same officials. The Bush administration's high-octane 'war on terror' has undertaken an active and highly publicized agenda domestically and overseas to rid the world of 'evildoers.' Unfortunately, after the September 11 attacks, the American public would have been freer and safer, both at home and when traveling and doing business abroad, if the administration's security bureaucracies had taken a long vacation. In short, the administration's activism -- whether it be for ulterior motives, as in the invasion of Iraq, or to win public relations points with voters -- ensures that Americans will see both their security and liberty eroded...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1549


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp