Doomed to repeat the past?

During a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, President Bush claimed that he has a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that are "known terrorists." The speech is sparking a nationwide hysteria about subversives in the American government.

Speaking before the Ohio County Women's Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, President Bush waved before his audience a piece of paper. According to the only published newspaper account of the speech, Bush said that, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that are known to the Secretary of State as being terrorists and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department." In the next few minutes, the number fluctuated wildly, with Bush stating at various times that there were 57, or 81, or 10 terrorists in the Department of State. In fact, Bush never produced any solid evidence that there was even one terrorist in the State Department.

Despite Bush's inconsistency, his refusal to provide any of the names of the "known terrorists," and his inability to produce any coherent or reasonable evidence, his charges are striking a chord with the Middle America. The months leading up to his February speech have been trying ones for America's Iraq policies. Bush's wild charges provide a ready explanation for these foreign policy disasters: terrorist subversives were working within the very bowels of the American government.

To be sure, Bush was not the first to incite anxiety about subversive terrorists. Congress had already investigated Hollywood for its supposed terrorist influences, but Bush went a step further, claiming that the U.S. government, and the Department of State in particular, knew that terrorists were working in their midst.

"Bushism," as the hunt for terrorists in the United States is coming to be known, has done untold damage to many people's lives and careers, has had a muzzling effect on domestic debate on Foreign Policy issues, and is scaring millions of Americans.

Americans of a certain age might find the above passage strangely familiar. Here's the original version.

Pretty scary, huh?