When I read that the Bush administration's proposal for a labyrinthine "Department of Homeland Security" included an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, a thought that had been scratching the back of my mind like an industrious mouse scurried into the open: There is something Orwellian about the amorphous "war on terrorism."

The proposed new department would combine 22 federal agencies and have more armed agents than any other agency. But the Bush administration doesn't want you to be able to find out what the hell it's doing. National security, you know.

This and constantly trotting out "the war" as justification for whatever the Bush crowd wants to do reminded me of Orwell's anti-totalitarian classic, "1984." I don't want to overstate the case, but flipping though my old paperback, there are creepy similarities.

In the nightmare world of Orwell's 1984, "Airstrip One" (aka England) is ruled by an all-powerful Party, and is in a constant state of war; the Party's motto reads, in part, "WAR IS PEACE." But the "enemy" shifts all the time between two distant nations, Eastasia and Eurasia. Not unlike Bush's slowly expanding "axis of evil."

Like the "war on terrorism," Airstrip One's war is far away, and is hazy to the average citizen. See if this passage echoes present reality: "In a physical sense, the war involves very small numbers of people, mostly highly trained specialists, and causes comparatively few casualties. The fighting, when there is any, takes place on the vague frontiers whose whereabouts the average man can only guess at."

Orwell, according to critic Erich Fromm, "gives an impressive picture of how a society must develop which is constantly preparing for war." Bush declares this war will go on for 10 years or more. Whenever he or his lieutenants want us to swallow some new reduction in liberties — i.e. the onerous USA-PATRIOT act, which enables more government snooping in private lives; BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU — they haul out the war excuse.

I support an intelligence-based, targeted war on the diffuse threat of terrorists, as do many Americans. But that doesn't give the Bush hawks permission to go ranging off on any military adventure they choose, such as finishing Poppy's biz in Iraq.

Pretending that we are now in a "war" that demands sacrifices in civil liberties — though curiously, none in material comforts — is insulting. World War II was a real war, and Americans rightly gave up essentials to support the fighting overseas. It's disingenuous to suggest that the current "war" is remotely similar.

Of course, doublespeak was crucial to maintaining Party power in "1984," too. According to the Bush people, citizens aren't necessarily citizens if we just tag them enemies, and POWs aren't really POWs. And if they say it's war, damn it, it is war, whether the enemy shifts from al-Qaida to Iraq to...?

War is an instrument of power not just over an enemy, but over the citizens at home. And as a Party torturer in "1984" says, "Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler ... If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever."

No, it's not that bad. Not yet. But let's all keep an eye on who's lacing up their boots, shall we?

Copyright 2002, The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company

###