Yes and what if the war does last 20 years? A succession of presidents pass a baton of increasingly diminshed civil liberties? It's a really good question.

From what very little I know, the NSA surveillance appears to be legal and justifiable. The problem for Bush, as always, is “perception becomes reality". Bush and his inner circle of advisors do not seem to be in touch with the average person and have done a very bad job of selling their ideas. People won’t buy the best product in the world if it isn’t marketed properly. The issue of presidential power becomes more important in a time of war, because out of necessity, a wartime president needs much more power than a peacetime one. All American presidents have expanded their powers in wartime. In the Civil War Lincoln was called a dictator for imposing martial law. In WWII FDR interned an entire population of Japanese American citizens based on their ethnicity (try that today). American's longest crisis was the Great Depression which lasted ten years. There is always the possibility the president won't give the power back once the crisis is over. Moreover, no one knows when the when will the War on Terror will be over. When will it be over? How will we know when it’s over? What troops will surrender and who will sign the final armistice agreement? In truth, the War on Terror may last for fifty years or longer. It might never end in our lifetimes. Chances are things will get much worse before they get better. Do we really want to give our president virtually limitless powers with no end point in sight? In Federalist 51, Madison says, "But what is government itself but the greatest of reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal control on government would be necessary." Madison continues with, "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." Democracies work best in peacetime. The problem with democracies is they tend to become less democratic in a national crisis. In a crisis the decision making process must be accelerated. Many decisions must be made on the spot. There is often little time for congressional debate and deliberation or for judicial review. The most effective wartime president is a monarch who can take immediate and decisive action. In the event of an “extreme” national crisis, such as a terrorist nuclear attack on one of our major cities or a massive bio-chemical assault - the president is the only person in government with the authority to take immediate action. In an extreme emergency it would be the president and the president alone who would decide what to do. We should all keep this in mind as we vote in the next election. PJ