Another Definition of Terrorism

Politics suck! Call me paranoid, call me naive, call me conspiratorial, but it seems like nothing is done or announced or instituted or passed unless it is timed perfectly for an election. Is it any wonder why the people's vote on the marriage amendment in Wisconsin was postponed until this November? Why? To try to get conservative voters to come out to the polls to vote on that issue and meanwhile oust Governor Doyle. They had the opportunity to push it sooner but specifically placed it on the November ballot.

The most recent example in my mind comes just a few days ago as President Bush announced that 14 high ranking terrorist plotters that in some cases have been held for years have divulged their last ounce of intelligence and are ready for trial. And when I say divulged, I mean legally or illegally coerced into divulging. And the administration is going to offer them to the American people on a plate just nine weeks before the mid term elections when maintaining a Republican foothold is essential. Years of interrogation and they fall right before mid term elections. Now that's timing. And to ice the cake, we'll invite family members of those who lost their lives on 9/11 to the East Room of the White House and make the announcement in front of them.

Here's the kicker. It's not enough to ride on a wave of public applause for capturing and bringing terrorists to justice. The administration wants it all. They have outlined for Congress how the terrorists should be tried and outlines how future suspects should be held and interrogated again holding unilateral control in the hands of the executive branch. Of course Congress has the final say but c'mon. Just nine weeks before mid term elections, can any politician be seen as "soft on terrorism"? The New York Times put it best. "In calling for public war-crime trials at Guantánamo Bay, President Bush is calculating that with a critical election just nine weeks away, neither angry Democrats nor nervous Republicans will dare deny him the power to detain, interrogate and try suspects his way."

The administration further pushes buttons by saying that we have the terrorists and the only thing that is holding up their trials is Congress's decision on how they will be tried, proverbially shifting the ball to their court. But they've had them secretly in undisclosed CIA prisons for years. Now, nine weeks before an election, when many members of Congress want to devote time to campaigning, they are pushed to make a decision.

I wonder whether there is a fine line in this case between saavy politicking and a new form of coercion. Is the administration relying on Congress to make the right decision or is the administration just holding them hostage in a disclosed prison called Washington DC. Has the administration made it difficult for Congress to live, breathe, act, think in an American way? Is this just a different kind of terrorism?