| That was the essence of a conversation between a fellow passenger and a friend recently as they flew out of the Missoula airport. The TSA had just spent 20 minutes tearing apart their luggage only to find nothing.
The United States has transitioned from "The Cold War to "The Long War", but in doing so have we handed Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda fulfillment of their goals? The goal of a terrorist is to promote "terror" by embedding the constant fear of attack and insecurity into a target, thereby changing forever their way of life. If that's true then we might have to say that, indeed, 9/11 was almost a complete success for Al Qaeda and Bin Laden.
Recent events point in this direction:
1. President Obama is said to support legislation validating "permanent internment" i.e. holding a prisoner, even an American citizen without charges or a trial indefinitely. GOP senators are said to be laying a trap where they will pass the bill and send it to Obama, and then dare him to veto it before the Presidential election. All this after the recent near acquittal of Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani. The result: Gitmo will be in business forever.
2. The TSA and "don't touch my junk". Before long Americans will be flying naked to prove their innocence from terrorism and provide the ultimate in airline security. The whole TSA thing has gotten completely out of control. Bin Laden has to be laughing hysterically as he watches Americans, from three-year old children to 90 year old ladies, get groped by agents before they board a plane.
3. The wikileaks release of "classified" information" reveals the obsession and hysteria of our Federal Government over terrorism. Reading the article in the NYT suggests that there really isn't anything in there that compromises anything.....except that Karzi is corrupt, Gadaffi is screwing one of his aids and so forth and so on. It reads more like a gossip column than anything to do with national security. But the White House and NSA have their hair on fire over it all. The essential point here is CYA, no politician or bureaucrat wants an attack to occur on their watch.
4. Our entanglements in foreign wars: Iraq and Afghanistan have drained trillions of dollars from our treasury and cost thousands of lives, for little return in terms of national security.
5. The "Patriot Act" need I say more.
...and we could go on and on over how our lives, liberties and treasure have all been fundamentally changed by the terrorists. All this in a hysterical response to 9/11. Not that 9/11 didn't deserve a serious response, but have we really been wise, or mostly political over how to both protect our citizens and ensure our liberties. The pathetic scenes of TSA agents groping our citizens and the failing, unending war in Afghanistan suggest not.....and Obama has no answers. Indeed, Bush defenders claim that Obama has validated most of Bush's strategies by his continuance thereof. It's hard to refute that argument.
All this does indeed feel like the Cold War and the Red Scare at their worst. Is the need for a constant enemy part of our national psyche? Franklin's words ring loudly through all of this: "Those who sacrifice liberty in return for security deserve neither".
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