In the process of seeking to make the United States absolutely safe, the Constitution and rule of law have been crippled.

It speaks volumes that the American Enterprise Institute Address never once mentions the sole oath that the President, Vice President, and all other officers of the United States are required to take: namely, to support and defend the Constitution. Mr. Cheney speaks of “the strategic thinking behind our policies,” “defending the country” rather that defending the Constitution, “our job was to stop [a sequel attack],” and, “to make certain our nation never again faced such a [9/11] day or horror.”

Of course, the best way to reduce to zero the probability of another 9/11 is to kill every person outside the United States. No sane person, however, believes in that harrowing counterterrorism strategy. The problem with the “Better Safe than Free” slogan is t hat no standard for line drawing is hazarded. Should the police be authorized to arrest or search any citizen on a hunch that the target might be a terrorist? Why not intercept every conversation and every email of every American in the United States in the hope that communications will be captured with clues about the next would-be act of terrorism?

Cheney’s general counterterrorism theory is if there is even a 1% chance of a national security danger of some sort, t he President must treat the prospect as an absolute certainty and act accordingly. For instance, if there is a 1% chance that a citizen or non-citizen is guilty of a war crime, the United States government should treat the suspect as categorically guilty. Forget about proof beyond a reasonable doubt or even by a preponderance of the evidence.

British arch-conservative statesman Edmund Burke admonished as the British Empire soared: ““I dread our own power and our own ambition. I dread our being too much dreaded. It is ridiculous to say that we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never wish to aggrandize ourselves.” The United States should heed that admonition in its quest for absolute safety.