Letter: Being more safe shouldn’t cost us our freedom

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.

To maintain "civilian authority" over domestic military counter-terrorism deployments, Cohen recently wrote in an op-ed column for the Washington Post, such efforts would be directed by "either the Department of Justice or the Federal Emergency Management Agency."

Those who witnessed the fruits of militarized law enforcement in the bloody Waco debacle, or who were appalled to see our fighting men ordered to carry out the terror bombing of Serbian civilians, may be alarmed over Cohen's proposed "remedy" for terrorism.

"Fears about the military's role in domestic affairs are unfounded," Cohen soothingly wrote. "On the contrary, the greater threat to our civil liberties stems from the chaos and carnage that might result from an attack for which we had failed to prepare and for the demands for action that would follow."

Among the Americans who had just such an "unfounded" fear of domestic militarism was Alexander Hamilton, who anticipated proposals such as Cohen's with uncanny prescience. In The Federalist, No. 8, Hamilton noted that the threat of war, which would include the threat of terrorism, "will compel nations that most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length are willing to run the risk of being less free."

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

GEORGE LUERAS