A year to ask questions

2003 is the year we will go to war with Iraq. Again. Asked recently by a reporter whether war was imminent, George W. Bush responded angrily that he couldn't imagine why the man would say such a thing but certainly it was "my decision and not yours," a charming commentary on democracy. Of course, this attitude should not surprise anyone. We have, after all, been hearing about President Bush's sense of entitlement for years: generations of legacy at Yale, family business connections, high profile political donors all too happy to honor a father by helping out his son. Surely such a man cannot be bothered to deal with regular citizens when making everyday decisions. The voice of the people, after all, can be so uninformed and so very poorly spoken.

While terrorism has afforded the President with many opportunities to act stealthily — who can forget the ingenious "shadow government" — he has made his share of covert policy moves domestically as well, all of them distasteful. In recent weeks, members of the Bush Administration have quietly pushed two nonpartisan federal agencies to change their tune on controversial issues.

After pressure was exerted by conservatives in the White House and Congress, The National Cancer Institute, a division of the NIH, altered its position on the link between abortion and cancer. One day, the Institute's website proclaimed no link between the two, the next day, studies were deemed "inconclusive." Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control removed a web page declaring that condom distribution in sex education classes did not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity, a finding from a new CDC study. The benign nature of condoms, it seemed, was inconsistent with the President's advocacy of abstinence only sex education. Inconsistency, even in the name of medical accuracy, can hardly be tolerated by the White House.

The Bush Administration could have made their unhappiness with these reports public. They could have engaged Americans in debate. But the Bush Administration isn't interested in public debate. It is interested in political gain and ideological purity. Therefore, Americans only need to know what the President wants them to know. Certainly, he would prefer we not discover inappropriate influence being exerted in the realm of cancer research or antiquated notions of sex education being used to contradict federal findings. These moves cannot be packaged into a 30-second spot or printed on red, white and blue posters. They will never help him get elected again.

The ills of a secretly constructed social policy, however, pale in comparison to the harms wrought in foreign affairs. Apparently the President doesn't think we're going to notice that the "War on Terror" has become a war on whatever country he happens to pick. Without sharing any new intelligence with the people, the President pulled Iraq, Iran and North Korea into the "Axis of Evil," a rhetorical alliance that has only exacerbated problems with each country. Today, Secretary Rumsfeld seems almost giddy at the idea of waging two wars at once, as if he's showing Americans that even at 70 he can still ride a bike with no hands on the handlebars.

The war in Iraq seems inevitable. There are good reasons for such a war, but I have yet to hear them come out of President Bush's mouth. Each time he gives a speech on the matter, he seems content to utter platitudes about evil and protecting our country and American values.

The most policy-oriented defense of the war I've heard from the President is that Saddam tried to assassinate his dad. Tempting though it is to say the President doesn't understand foreign policy, this cannot be the case. Instead, he seems to believe that Americans do not need or want to know anything beyond his impassioned belief in our country. We don't need to understand the fine points of weapons inspections or what has happened to the search for Osama bin Laden, whose name hasn't been uttered by the President since August. If we trust him, and, of course, vote for him in 2004, everything will be just fine.

In 1992, the first President Bush thought he couldn't lose the Presidency after a quick, made for television victory in Iraq. He lost to an underdog governor with no name recognition. If George W. Bush thinks that the American people aren't going to use the election as a chance to ask the questions to which we never seem to get answers, he is wrong. If he thinks that we will be so afraid of terrorism and foreign threats that we will support him blindly, he is wrong. 2003 is the year we go to war with Iraq. Again. But the White House owes us some answers. 2003 should be the year we get them. Katherine Reilly is a sophomore from Short Hills, N.J. She can be reached at kcreilly@princeton.edu.