Stoopid Stuff

Be Afraid...Please?

Somebody needs to point out to Messers. Bush, Cheney and Rove that the well is dry. The post 9/11 hysteria has, for most of us, ended. We can now look at the possibility of terrorist attacks with a sense of cold detachment, and realize a couple things. First, and most importantly, we can understand that, while we very well might be attacked again, there is no way these attacks, no matter how severe, can change our way of life. They will not "defeat" or "destroy" America, and there is simply no way for them to impose the Shari'a or the Burka on the US. Many more people will die on America's highways every year, and this will not cause us to drive less, or slower, or more sober. Second, we're beginning to sense that our response to previous terrorist attacks has been all wrong. You cannot deal with the threat of a small group of well funded terrorists with military might. You will always end up attacking the wrong thing, and hurting innocents. This behavior will simply continue to enrage the people we attack, and they will want to attack us some more. Keep feeding the cycle, and it never ends.

One of the fascinating little signs that this administration has disingenuously exploited fear of terror is their utter unwillingness to allow discussion about the root causes of terror. They cannot allow the dialog to get past "they hate us for our freedoms", because to do so would require an examination of our own behavior, and would lead to actual solutions as opposed to permanent war.

Bush has continually exploited 9/11 and stoked fears of a relentless, implacable enemy to keep the American people from questioning too closely his militaristic, authoritarian corporatist ideology. He has hidden behind fear of "the terrorists" while he stripped away basic liberties and constitutional guarantees, from searches without warrants to habeas corpus itself. It was telling that even as he and Cheney ramped up the hysteria and fear mongering in November, the American people refused to be cowed, once again like sheep, and voted into power as much opposition as was available to them in a midterm election. So have they learned? Has Karl Rove had to come up with another solution to bamboozle the people into supporting the most incompetent, corrupt and dangerous administration in American history?

Nope. It appears that screaming "fire" in a crowded theater is all they have. Just yesterday the President was giving the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy. In that speech he repeatedly tried to create fear in the population once again, clearly longing for the "good old days" when a few well placed veiled threats could earn him a pass on another egregious assault on everything America stands for. His message? al-Quaeda is coming to America to Kill your loved ones!!! Collectively, the people yawned.

It's interesting when you think about it. Terrorists do not have the manpower or the combat power to actually have an effect on America and our way of life. They can kill some people, make us sad, and angry. But the best they can hope for is that by instilling terror in the American population, the people will take steps that begin to break down our way of life. It is the irrational levels of terror in the population as a result of the attacks that, if everything works out the way THEY want it to, will cause America to self destruct from the inside.

When you recognize bin Laden's goal in the 9/11 attacks, you discover that his most effective ally, from the very moment those planes hit those buildings, has been George W. Bush. He has wrapped himself in fear, and spread fear from coast to coast. Fear has been the watchword of the administration, and fear has been the only source of real power for a mindless frat boy in way over his head. And now that the American people are beginning to realize that they don't need to fear, that indeed, there is very little to truly fear beyond the lies and desperate propaganda of a failed President, he looks like little more than a cartoon, shouting hyperbole in all directions, demonstrating for all the ultimate dishonesty in his message of fear...

posted by mikey @ 8:50 AM