The "War On Terrorism" requires that we distrust one another and absolutely trust the government. (The illustration, one of the most famous in the history of journalism, is from CNN.)

This does not come naturally to Americans. But it comes come naturally to many Chinese. (Not all of them, obviously.)

So Intel's tilting at Chinese windmills, in the form of a Chinese government demand that Chinese snoops be given a back-door into its 802.11 systems, isn't just one company standing in front of a Chinese tank.

That's also an American tank they're standing in front of. My fear is they have no more hope of success than that Chinese man did, since "The War" trumps everything, and with absolute security comes absolutism. Better our'n than there'n, right?

Am I being alarmist? No, I'm not. I don't know any other way to treat the latest FBI demand, that government be able to tap all broadband communications, and quickly.

Anyone who knows anything about the Internet knows this is not as easy as it sounds. Bits are bits. You can't tell voice bits from text bits from graphic bits. And you can't easily tell if the bits have been scrambled, either.

Yet that is just what the cops are demanding. Stop the Internet until we can monitor it. How American is that, and how Chinese? (The illustration to the right is of a 1991 memo from Brent Scowcroft demanding encryption controls specifically so the government could wiretap digital telephony. It's from EPIC.)

And how irresistable, especially with word that the Spanish atrocities were probably the work of Al Qaeda.

Americans are thus faced with a very hard choice. We are all east of the rock and west of the hard place.

I, for one, at least know where I stand. I would rather risk the anarchy of Al Qaeda than the absolutism of either the Chinese or the Ashcroftians. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of this I am certain. No matter how nice, kind and reasonable Ashcroft may be, you can be sure that someone who inherits that power won't be so nice, kind or reasonable.

Even Ashcroft may be forced to agree. I can make him. Want to see? OK.

(Nurse, get the sedative ready.)

Now Mr. Attorney General, sir, close your eyes. Relax, you're in a deep relaxed state. Now, it's February 2005. President Bush has been defeated. You are back in Missouri. And in Washington your successor is being sworn-in.

It's Hillary Clinton. (Nurse, nurse?)

See what I mean? If you trust Ashcroft with this kind of absolute power, then you must trust his successor, whoever that might be. If you can't you're already an "enemy combatant," as far as I am concerned.

Now, does Ashcroft trust the Junior Senator from New York with the absolute power he seeks for himself? Would you?