During his visit to campus, former U.S. Senator Gary Hart also was the guest at a tea at Berkeley College. Here, he chats with junior Daniel Kurtz-Phelan.

Sept. 11 attacks have put ordinary citizens on
'front line' of combat against terrorism, says Hart

Retaliation alone will not be effective in lpreventing future terrorist attacks on the United States, and unless Americans understand how and why the tragic assaults on the nation's citizens took place, "we are bound to repeat them," former Colorado senator Gary Hart warned in a campus visit on Oct. 2. Preventing such assaults in the future will require Americans to move beyond traditional assumptions and beliefs and "look to our imagination, our cultural values and to our very national character," he told the several hundred people who attended his address in Battell Chapel, where he gave the inaugural lecture in the University's series "Democracy, Security and Justice: Perspectives on the American Future." Saying that the terrorist attacks "fundamentally and historically" changed the nature of warfare and obliterated the "distinction between war and crime," Hart stated that one of the ways that American citizens can honor those who died is by "changing our way of thinking and our government by making this the occasion to dry up the terrorist swamp, to adapt our policies to a different world and to reduce widespread resentment to Americans around the world." Accomplishing this, Hart told his audience, will require among other things "a concerted international effort to attack the pockets of human misery [around the world] with the same fervor that we are currently attacking terrorism." Young men and even children growing up in refugee camps without adequate food, clothing and shelter are easily drawn into the terrorist network by recruiters who offer these basic necessities as well as "comradeship and a cause," he explained. "Our only hope with [potential recruits] is to offer them and their families an even better life -- one with the human necessities at the very least, but also with hope," the one-time presidential candidate said. Hart, who cochaired the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century with former Senator Warren B. Rudman, outlined the recommendations the commission made in a series of three published reports between 1999 and July of this year. Although the commission was "mandated to conduct the most comprehensive review of American national security doctrines and structures since 1947," the group's recommendations basically fell on deaf ears, said Hart. He noted that in a report issued almost exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the commission wrote, "America will become increasingly vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeland, and our military superiority will not entirely protect us. Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers." Hart then read a section of the commission's final report, made to President Bush in July: "The combination of unconventional weapon proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack. A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century. ... In the face of this threat, our nation has no coherent or integrated governmental structures." Despite the commission's warnings, he said, "[O]ur political leadership did not hear us, our military leadership did not hear us, the national media did not listen, and now our community is badly shaken. But even more importantly, the children of America now see their future as uncertain, and 7,000 people died." Hart urged that the United States now adopt the commission's proposal for a National Homeland Security Agency which would integrate the more than 40 federal agencies currently responsible for national security and for responding to natural and human disasters, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Border Patrol and Customs Service. The agency would be entirely separate from any current U.S. military agency, and its mission, he said, would be to carry out "a comprehensive strategy developed by the president to prevent and protect against all forms of attack on the homeland and to respond to such attacks if prevention and protection fail." Noting that the United States imports more than 50% of its oil from nations that are home to terrorist operations, Hart furthermore called for a rethinking of U.S. energy policy. "American money, it can plausibly be argued, is being recycled to finance terrorism against the U.S.," he said. "It seems to me that this would be an appropriate occasion to question our patterns of wasteful energy consumption and our dependence on foreign imports." One of the greatest challenges facing American society as it responds to the new "age of terrorism," said Hart, will be finding the balance between security and democratic freedom. "We are all aware of the fact that extraordinary care must now be taken to prevent the erosion of constitutional liberties in our very effort to protect them," Hart told his audience. Addressing the students in the crowd in particular, he added, "You should let your considered opinions be heard in this debate. There are constitutional experts and scholars -- including in this community -- who will be involved in this debate, but they represent the theoretical, and you represent the immediate and the practical. Above all, do not simply hope that the powers that be come out right on these critical constitutional issues. In the final analysis, there are no experts where your rights are concerned." One of the greatest mistakes the nation can make at this point is to "neglect the real possibility" of another terrorist attack, Hart stated. "I think it would be folly not to assume that further attacks are even now being prepared," he declared. The terrorist attacks, he concluded, have put ordinary citizens on the "front line" of the combat against terrorism. "This new conflict has arrived at your doorstep," he said. "This is not a challenge that is convenient to leave to private enterprise. This is not a conflict that government alone can solve. This is not a conflict between nation states any longer. This is a conflict between ways of life, values and even definitions of the purpose of life. ... "Our response to this challenge will largely define our generation. ... The whole world is watching the seriousness of our commitment to the liberal values of tolerance, of diversity and of dissent. Religious intolerance, racial profiling and neo-McCarthyism all represent a victory for terrorism and a defeat for democracy." -- By Susan Gonzalez T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Community Celebrates Yale's 300th Year Sept. 11 attacks have put ordinary citizens on 'front line' . . . Economist Yellen describes 'The Art and Science of Central Banking' . . . NIH grant supports new center for biomedical computing Brain expert to explain 'How Matter Becomes Imagination' Governor of Washington to be Chubb Fellow President of The New York Times to address Sept. 11 'From Biology to Ethics' is theme of Terry Lectures 'Do what's good for society at large,' urges alumnus neurosurgeon Renowned child psychiatrist Dr. Donald J. 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