AMERICA/CONOR O'CLERY: The leading proponent of war against Iraq is Richard Pearle, a former assistant defence secretary who chairs the Defence Policy Board, a group that advises the Pentagon. Last summer he was telling anyone who would listen that Iraq and al-Qaeda were in cahoots and that Saddam Hussein must be removed from office.
Those who listened included President Bush, who is now saying the same thing, though a smoking gun linking Saddam to al-Qaeda has yet to be found. This week Pearle, just back from a trip to Europe, spoke at a small buffet lunch in New York about the Iraqi crisis. His comments over pasta and smoked salmon give an insight into the mindset of the neo-conservatives around President Bush, who seem to believe that anyone disagreeing with Washington is at best misguided or feckless.
He told us that "quite senior" French and German officials had quietly informed him they were "appalled" at the policies of their governments and their "appalling lack of professionalism". He said Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had turned anti-war because in the German elections he discovered that a target group of voters, women in the 25-40 age category, responded well to pacifism rather than a "day-care initiative" which fell flat.
Schröder had painted himself into a corner so extreme that he "must have been a source of some comfort to Saddam Hussein" as evidence of a split in the alliance. German officials had confided to him they understood this "made a peaceful solution less likely" as Saddam would take heart from it. In France the motives were different.
The French had $40-60 billion in contracts in the pipeline if sanctions on Iraq were lifted, he claimed. Moreover, France wanted to build the EU into a counterweight to US power, rather than an ally.
The French action on NATO was Jacques Chiraq's policy - "any number of French officials have taken me aside to say exactly that". They should be cut out of military discussions in NATO. He believed many Europeans couldn't understand US policy because Americans felt threatened in a way different from others since 9/11. "I would be surprised if someone over coffee and applecake in Oslo will feel so threatened," he said.
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AT the height of the Cold War, when Americans felt threatened by Soviet missiles, the US Federal Civil Defence Administration produced a film to show children how to "duck and cover" under their desks in the event of an atomic bomb. (The Russians had something similar: I once saw evacuation orders in a Soviet factory showing how workers should follow smiling party leaders out of the nuclear rubble.)
Now that Washington is again warning of attack from a weapon of mass destruction, it has come up with a new civil defence formula - "duct and plastic". The Federal Emergency Management Agency has told citizens to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to cover the windows and doors of a "safe" room in the home to guard against fallout from a chemical, biological or nuclear device.
Many people are taking this as seriously as the kids back in the 1950s. My local hardware store on Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan, sold out of plastic and duct tape by mid-week. It's the same all over the country. In Connecticut a man covered all his 19th-century farmhouse in white plastic. "I feel safer," he said, "and warmer."
Critics have been scathing. "I mean, duct tape and plastic?" said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. "Where's the good air coming from? How's it going to be recirculated? Beyond the fact that we already know, for nerve gas and other elements, the plastic is totally ineffective. I think it was done just to give people a sense of 'Everything will be OK', and to give them a sense of confidence."
In the event of a nuclear or radiological dirty bomb going off, some experts say the best place is a basement or a subway tunnel. Underground tunnels are not, however, places that people linger in these days. We have been warned they are possible targets. Some commuters in New York avoid getting on to carriages where they see everyone is asleep - a common sight these freezing winter days with the increased number of homeless - in case they have actually been gassed.
One expert said the best advice if an attack comes is to stick a finger in the air, figure out which way the wind is blowing, and head up wind as fast as possible.
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has the right idea. After hosting a press conference last Friday telling everyone not to worry (which got everybody really worried) he got as far downwind of New York as possible and spent the weekend at Miami Beach in Florida.
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THE heightened terror alerts have revived arguments from Democrats that the billions being spent on the war and the wealthy would be better spent on providing top-class domestic security. President Bush "should set aside $20 billion in tax breaks for 226,000 millionaires and put homeland security for 290 million Americans first", said Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Edwards is one of the Democratic candidates for president and homeland security is set to become a big election issue in 2004. The Democratic field is growing fast and there is as yet no clear front-runner.
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is now seriously considering a run and is much more visible these days. Dodd and Hillary Clinton were among the guests at a star-studded benefit for AIDS at Cipriani's in Manhattan some days ago. There, actor Richard Gere caused gasps during his speech when he said: "And Senator Clinton, I'm sorry your husband did nothing for AIDS for eight years."
Dodd was furious. "He's such a jerk," he commented of Gere. "I would love to get him and Hillary in a room alone together. Let's see what would happen then."
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ACTORS had something to celebrate in New York this week. The city council voted 38-5 for a new law making it illegal to use cell phones at public performances and in galleries and museums.
The move follows a number of noted incidents, recalled in the New York Times, that have infuriated performers on Broadway. When a phone kept on ringing during a dramatic moment in Death of a Salesman, actor Brian Dehenny stopped the scene, glared into the audience and said: "You want to get that? We'll wait."
A beeper going off during a sensitive moment in a reading of Oedipus in the Actors' Studio produced a cold stare from Al Pachino. Stanley Tucci shouted from the stage at an offender during Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
Police aren't likely to patrol the aisles giving out tickets for $50 fines, but at least the theatre management can now tell people it is illegal not to turn off their cell phones.