Wordcruncher

The Deadliest Game of Chicken

There is an old story about Stalin. As it goes, he was illustrating his approach to governance with a young chicken. He plucked all the chick’s feathers – after which, trembling from cold and fright, the bird huddled closely to the dictator’s leg.

“That’s how you rule the people,” Stalin said.

Make people feel vulnerable and they will cling to you for protection. It’s an old political formula the Bush administration has exploited to its advantage since September 11. It may have even been the primary reason Mr. Bush was elected in 2004.

Fear was the centerpiece of the administration’s misguided and illegal war in Iraq. Our brave soldiers are dying in Iraq because of a manufactured, artificial fear. Even today the president gave a speech that simply attempts to remind Americans how afraid we should all be of another September 11 (and of an Islamic empire from Spain to Indonesia).

The president needs fear more now than ever before. Rumors are flying that Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will hand down indictments in the Valerie Plame leak investigation and that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s senior advisor, will be on the receiving end of a felony count. The president’s approval ratings are in a post-Katrina tailspin (37 percent, according to this CBS News poll). Speaker of the House Tom DeLay has been indicted. The Jack Abramoff investigation inches closer and closer to the White House. The administration desperately needs something to knock all of this bad news off the front page.

So – how to pluck the chick?

How about a terrorist threat in New York City? It worked so well after the Democrats’ national convention. How about a nuclear threat from Iran? It worked to get us into Iraq.

Or how about the avian flu?

In his recent press conference, Mr. Bush elaborated on a response to a potential H5N1 outbreak. Certainly, there is potential for a pandemic. National Geographic felt it important enough to merit front-page coverage. It could be a threat – if it evolves to the point that it can jump from birds to humans, perhaps through an intermediary host (such as pigs). At the moment, the virus isn’t effective enough to make that jump – yet.

Heightening awareness about such a possibility is certainly the duty of public officials. Was this Mr. Bush’s objective – or is just more cynical fear mongering?

H5N1 has been a potential threat since before Mr. Bush became president. Yet a quick visit to the United States Department of Health and Human Services website reveals not one word about the avian flu. Likewise, the Surgeon General’s website is mum on the issue (we are in the beginning of flu season, but as of today, the site’s last update was September 10). That would seem to discount the notion that Mr. Bush’s administration is preparing the public; the government doesn’t even seem prepared.

In fact, the only proposed response to such an outbreak was Mr. Bush’s mini-speech on the subject, in which he implied that martial law would be required to enforce a quarantine. There are even questions regarding the qualifications of the government’s point-man, Stewart Simonson, should the avian flu break out here. Mr. Simonson is a lawyer, with no medical experience. He’s yet another example of Mr. Bush’s cronyism.

All signs seem to indicate that the federal government is at least as prepared to respond to a deadly influenza outbreak as it was to hurricane Katrina. And that should strike fear into the heart of every American.

UPDATE: Plutonium Page over at Daily Kos has more on the subject from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness -- and even from the Cato Institute.