Volume 51, Number 9 · May 27, 2004
Bush and the Lesser Evil
By Anthony Lewis
The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror
by Michael Ignatieff
Princeton University Press, 212 pp., $22.95
The Year of Living Dangerously: A Liberal Supporter of the War Looks Back
an article by Michael Ignatieff
The New York Times Magazine, March 14, 2004
Suppression of civil liberty in the name of national security is an old story in the United States. It has happened repeatedly in times of war or fear since the early days of the republic. In 1798, just seven years after the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, the Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize the president; the supposed reason was the danger of French Jacobin terror infiltrating America. The Civil War, World Wars I and II, and assorted episodes of national fear were all made occasions for punishing speech and depriving people of due process of law.
Review, 4706 words
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