by Phil Kent, SLF President

Tried by fire and violence in a manner unparalleled on our nation's soil, the American people have a choice to make as we honor the dead and clear away the rubble in New York and Washington. Never has this nation been so justified in seeking retribution, as the world's democracies promise support and the world's terrorists and sponsor-states await the concerted response of the only global superpower.

Yet, even as we pursue justice for an act unmatched in its disregard for human liberty, we wrestle with the perennial American question: will we trade freedom for order and security? The evolving answer, forged through war, economic hardship, and now, terrorism, defines our status as a constitutional republic.

Make no mistake -- security matters. Protection of people and property is ensconced in the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the various states. Our government must, if we intend to survive as free people, take deliberate and militant steps to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." In that, we have failed time and again. The nation's immigration policy for nearly two decades has consisted of a series of amnesties for illegal aliens, who enter our porous borders by the millions. With no criminal background checks, the illegals comprise the fastest-growing segment of our nation's prison population.

And, protecting our way of life demands more than simply securing our borders. Since the fashionable liberal attacks on the American intelligence community in the 1970s, the U.S. has come to rely exclusively on high-tech solutions. The so-called "human intelligence capability" sacrificed on the altar of populist paranoia has left the U.S. military unable to predict Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests and multiple terrorist attacks on U.S. military installations and embassies across the globe. The New York/Washington, DC operation was precisely executed, predictable if only by its precursors in the suicide attacks on the military barracks in Saudi Arabia and the assault on the U.S.S. Cole. So, what is to be done?

First, the U.S. government must demonstrate its terrible resolve. Freedom cannot flourish where men do nothing. As our military and intelligence communities determine the responsible parties, we must pursue vigorous and swift penalties -- perhaps at the point of a bayonet rather than in a court of law. Additionally, President Bush and/or Congress can repeal the executive order ban on assassinations of American enemies who, by clear and convincing evidence, have been determined to pose a real and present danger to the U.S. and its citizens. U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) introduced just such a bill last January.

As a nation, we do not and should not seek criminal justice for the terrorists; we demand the termination of terror threatening freedom.

Second, the U.S. government must -- under the consent of the governed -- enforce current law with impunity. Immigration laws, which mandate deportation for illegal aliens, have been ignored routinely or bypassed intentionally by Clinton-era liberals. This must change, even as President Bush reforms the INS to bolster its ability to enforce immigration policy.

Third, the American people must be willing to assume a war footing. During certain periods in our nation's history, judicial processes and law enforcement limitations have been modified to accommodate periods of national emergency. While President Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus in the 19th century, and President Roosevelt's internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans in the 20th century, abrogated the duty to protect individual liberty, we must measure our government's actions in the defense of American liberty and in the prosecution of those responsible for stealing that liberty from tens of thousands of Americans, by the reasoned approach of emergency.

Certain steps necessary to achieve justice, even "in cases of rebellion or invasion as the public safety requires it," as the U.S. Constitution allows, may violate constitutional rights like habeas and speedy trial. In order to "provide for the common defense," we sometimes violate such rights -- but such violations must be extremely narrow in scope and limited in duration, as in war.

When asked what was wrought during the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." Oligarchies and totalitarian states do not wrestle with such problems as individual rights and fundamental liberties. As the foremost constitutional republic, it falls to the U.S. to demonstrate not only the resolve to defend a way of life, but also to hear the measured cadence of our nation's founders, who confirmed that liberty -- not terror or power -- is the noblest ambition of the human heart. Our republic demands it.

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