The War for Terror

[Guest guest]

Below from a blog. UIRL at end.

 

Alobar

 

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The War for Terror

 

At the beginning of last month, a bunch of Al Qaeda wannabes

successfully reigned terror down upon the Western world. The

ramifications of their actions still echo loudly through airport

terminals, and promise to keep doing so for months and years to come.

 

These guys were so good, they didn't even have to blow anything up.

 

Scotland Yard succeeded in thwarting a plan, but the DHS and the TSA

have guaranteed that the efforts of those dedicated to the destruction

of the West through fear and mistrust were not in vain.

 

Here's the deal: there was never any reason whatsoever for flights to

be grounded on August 10. The arrests of the wannabes was not based on

their just having been discovered. Nor did it come because bombs were

made and fanatics were buying airline tickets.

 

No, the reason the arrests happened when they did was that the

Pakistani police with whom Scotland Yard was coordinating got trigger

happy and arrested one of the main players in the plot. The Brits were

well aware that the plot was nowhere near ready to go forward - no

airline tickets had been purchased, and two of the bombers still

didn't have passports. But once the leader was arrested, the Brits

feared that the rest of the ring would destroy the evidence and go to

ground. So they executed multiple raids to prevent that from

happening.

 

What we should have seen on the morning of the 10th was newspaper

headlines touting how the plot was foiled and how summer travelers

were continuing their plans uninterrupted. That would have been

triumph over the terrorists.

 

Instead, we got Chicken Little shouts that the sky was falling. Planes

were grounded, people's lives disrupted, and ridiculous new

regulations were adopted.

 

This is not an accident.

 

Not once since the institution of the terror alert level system been

below yellow. Why is that? If this is the level of alert we should

expect to live with, why not make this " green - exercise ordinary

caution " ? That way elevation would actually mean being alerted to a

real danger. As has been proven in the last 5 years, there is almost

never any danger to the average U.S. citizen on a day-to-day basis. We

are free to go about our lives, taking ordinary precaution.

 

Except it does not serve the purposes of the government to allow us to

think that we are in any sort of a normal situation. Nothing as

soothing as green is to be allowed.

 

It serves the government to keep us continually at a yellow alert

level, however. Terror is useful. There is no reason to justify taking

additional measures such as illegal wire tapping if the government

admits that the day-to-day lives of citizens are actually pretty safe.

After all, if they are, then wiretaps are not, for the most part,

emergencies. A proper warrant can be obtained. The law of the land can

be followed.

 

No, that won't do. Far better to create an ongoing sense of danger.

People are more compliant if they think you are saving their lives.

 

And so it was that we found ourselves boarding a plane to Germany with

our meager belongings in a clear plastic bag. No books, because a bomb

could be hidden in them - something that opening the book and riffling

through the pages apparently would not reveal. No snacks for kids, no

computers, chapstick, magazines, toys, no nothing.

 

The sky, after all, was falling. And, hell, you get an oppotunity like

this, you take it! Ground travel, increase regulation, run people

through more security, look grimmer and more serious than usual.

 

Because sheep are easier to manage than individuals. And if you can

keep people in sheep mode - easily spooked, willing to be herded -

then stuffing more and more regulation down their throats is simple.

 

I hear it, too. People shrug their shoulders and say, " Well at least

we're safer. " Even were that true - which it's not - since when safety

is the highest value in our lives? What happened to freedom?

Self-determination? The kind of guts that turned our forefathers into

criminals in the eyes of their English overlords when they assaulted

tax collectors and dumped tea into Boston Harbor?

 

Oh, better not stir up trouble. After all, we're all on yellow alert.

You never know what dangers may befall us!

 

The greatest danger is not that you'll be blown up. It's that you'll

lose your ability to speak out. Terror isn't the actions of a few

crazed fundamentalists. It's the industry of governments bent on

fostering compliance. They're fighting to keep you terrified.

 

That's the really scary part.

 

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