To the New Media and the Blogs: The Answer To War Fever is to Elevate the Truth and Tone of Our Discussion.

When the armed forces of our country won the war for freedom in the Atlantic and the Pacific with a united America behind them, acting with a spirit that is often quoted but rarely emulated today, they did so with one call in common: we are in this together.

One of the great tragedies that followed 9-11 was that rather than bringing our country together, the politics of 9-11 were used to tear America apart for partisan reasons that trumped patriotic unity.

Remember when Democrats and Republicans stood in front of the Capitol and sang God Bless America side by side? Remember when Americans everywhere carried the banner of United We Stand? Remember when virtually the entire world stood behind America with fires still burning from lower Manhattan to Northern Virginia?

What has happened to our country? What has happened to our moral credibility in the world? What has happened to our spirit of unity? What has happened to our democracy which was born to respect alternate opinion, engage in an honorable clash of ideas, and unite with a common purpose to protect our shared security and promote our shared values?

From the Halls of Congress, to the editorial and news pages of great newspapers, to the cable television studios that cheapen our democracy and our journalism with the fear and the smear of war fever partisanship, and yes, to the blogs there has been a cheapening and demeaning quality to our national discussions which form the heart of our national democracy.

I predict historians will look back on all of us, and say: what was your generation thinking? I do not exempt myself from this criticism.

Literally, in the week after 9-11 I contacted both the CIA and Marine Corps intelligence and offered to help the war against Bin Laden in any way. Because of my background, I have something to contribute with knowledge of both military and intelligence. I will never forget the day, a week or two after 9-11, when I was on the phone with a Marine Corps Colonel who was simultaneously on the phone with a Marine Corps General who said to me: You realize you wont be fighting Bin Laden, you'll be sent to Iraq? I said: What in the hell are you talking about? And now we know.

More than anyone, I blame the President of the United States, who may well go down in history as the worst commander in chief who ever assumed the office, and who created a climate of war fever, and exploited the fears he created to launch an attack on our Bill of Rights through unilateral assertions to total power, and an attack on fellow Americans whom he treats like domestic enemies rather than fellow patriots.

I am embarrassed by the Democratic Party today; outraged by what our media has done; disgusted by political hacks in high places who use words like treason, and traitor, and suggest if you sing our anthem in Spanish you are not a real American, and threaten jail time to reporters and editors because they believe that democracy means the truth should not be known by our courts, our Congress and our people.

We are not in World War War III, or World War II, or World War I. It is a defamation against the heroism and unity of the Great Generation to compare our challenge to theirs, to compare our divisions to their unity, or to compare our politics of fear to their courage and valor in defeating two of the greatest armadas of evil in world history, one in the Atlantic, the other in the Pacific.

To those who foment war fever, who chant the loudest about world war three, who use these fears to promote divisions, attack our Bill of Rights, and turn American against American, I ask: If we are in World War III against terror, why did you allow Bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora by diverting forces to Iraq, in one of the great blunders in the history of American commanders in chief?

Yes, there are dangers, but I propose that our policies in the Middle East have clearly failed, with results in Iraq that are apparent every hour, with our generation being the first since 1948 to not even attempt for six years a serious initiative for Middle East peace and stability, with a President who describes himself as the master of low expectations and a Loyal Opposition that acts like masters of mediocrity, with policies that create more terrorists than we kill, and real vulnerabilities that exist throughout the fields of homeland security from our ports to police facing budget cuts, while politicians gouge on pork barrel corruption, and war profiteers exploit war fever in ways that turn the Sermon on the Mount on its head.

I am more optimistic than this post might seem, and early next will elaborate with an essay that will be titled something like: "From The Ed Murrow Boys To The Dan Rather Heirs". The self-correcting mechanisms created by Washington and Jefferson have begun to work; strong majorities of our people now disapprove of our politics in Washington; huge numbers of our people are turning away from old decadent media and turning towards new media that is less corrupted and more open to a broader debate.

In this spirit, and with this hope, I seek to address everyone in the blogosphere and throughout the worlds of new media: we are the wave of the future, and the future is now, and the issue for us, is what we stand for, how we operate, and why we should elevate our democracy by elevating ourselves.

I emphasize: I do not exempt myself from this criticism, and I do seek, not only in what I write but what I do, that cannot be written of here, to be part of the solution.

Can we agree to the aspiration that the new media and the blogs will be a forum for open and respectful debate that will elevate the tone and workings of our democracy? Can we hold and articulate strong views about the future of our country, while avoiding the curse of war fever that degenerates at times into accusation against each other, the very corruption of the old politics and old media that we should seek to transcend and defeat.

Granted, our new media and blogosphere are like the Wild West in the days it was fast growing with cowboys quick on the draw, and, there is a danger when views are stated under pseudonyms which too often gives license to excess, or positions are advocated with war fever passions which are understandable but can lead us in wrong directions.

Example: I do not "hate" Joe Lieberman, I oppose him, and support Ned Lamont.

Example: I cringe when I see exaggerated debates on the Middle East that degenerate into name calling and vitriol with charges and counter-charges of anti-Semitism. In my essay answering the challenge of Alan Dershowitz, and in his response, I believe we both sought and achieved an ability to articulate clear positions in calm, professional and respectful tones. I am not in the business of labelling other people's opinions or other people's accusations against each other, but I would be eternally grateful if all of us, myself included, would go the extra mile advocating our strong views with maximum civility even towards those we disagree with most strongly.

I always read the commenters on my essays and many others. I have learned from some of them; others have made me cringe, LOL, and often I have tried to answer, usually using my real name in the answer, always seeking to show respect whether they agree or disagree with my views.

The real challenge for Americans today, I believe, from our President to the new media and blogosphere, is whether we live up to the standards of democracy handed to us, by those who came before. We here at the Huffington Post, and consortiumnews; and MYDD; and Daily Kos; and makethemaccountable; and patriotproject; and smirkingchimp; and buzzflash; and firedoglake; and Air America or the new Air Americas that will soon emerge; and Dan Rather in his new venture with Mark Cuban; and many others too numerous to name, are the wave of the future, and the gathering force of the present, who should embody the highest standards of the past.

We who champion the new media and the blogosphere cannot control the partisanship in Washington, or the smear and fear of the hate media of the right, or the mediocrity media of a mainstream that has lost credibility with the majority. But everyone of us, can control what each of us does, and if we live to our highest standards and aspirations, we will win, we will deserve to win, because in America, in the end, with the self-correcting mechanisms of our democracy, truth will out.