Written by Tom DeWeese On September 12, 2001, President George
W. Bush invited members of Congress and the media for a meeting
in the cabinet room of the White House. The mood was
understandably anxious, somber: The World Trade Center lay in
rubble, the Pentagon had a hole gouged into it and shock and awe
had settled over the United States. One of the most
extraordinary periods of American history – what would come to
be known as the “Post 9-11 Era” – was beginning. The president
gravely laid out the situation and the steps his administration
would take to secure the homeland, but during the course of the
meeting he also made this significant declaration: “We will not
allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way of life or
restricting our freedoms.” Those were heroic words of principle
and patriotism in a traumatic time, but history would show that
government’s reaction to the terrorist threat was the exact
opposite than the protection of freedoms. Instead, government
rushed in with a massive plan to c