FACEBOOK
TWITTER
Fear-based policies now rule nation
John Havelock
Comment
As we all know now, in the early years of the Great Depression, FDR famously said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Too bad this didn’t occur to President Bush in facing 9/11. His personal fear became the fear-based policies of the nation.
Failure to protect the country resulted in overdrawn policies that are seriously damaging our democracy
Fear is a simple, reasonable explanation for the irrational policies whose unintended consequences are changing the nature of our society. We not only got the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, but we also got fear-driven interpretations of these acts and administrative actions that have helped to make America, at huge financial cost, into a more authoritarian country, reminding us daily to be afraid.
Fear is a simple, reasonable explanation for the irrational policies whose unintended consequences are changing the nature of our society. We not only got the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, but we also got fear-driven interpretations of these acts and administrative actions that have helped to make America, at huge financial cost, into a more authoritarian country, reminding us daily to be afraid.
More uniformed personnel are telling you what you can do and where you can go. Secret operations such as wiretaps that you can’t know about have proliferated. There is less reporting to the Congress and less public accountability. This shift will never be reversed.
The al-Qaida crowd must have high-fived all around. The real focus of the attack was America’s myth of invincibility, a psychological vulnerability. Our reactions exceeded their wildest dreams.
We have since been daily under threat of attack, security level "Code Orange." Do you really believe it? The fact that no more attacks have happened is credited to our authoritarian turn. But the truth is that the al-Qaida attack was unrepeatable from Day One and that improved intelligence alertness closed the rest of the gap. Al-Qaida can blow people and buildings up but rarely beyond countries where their operatives are home-grown.
Rather than enhanced security, we are left with fresh, daily absurdities. In air travel, we’re stuck with security lines of uncertain length and must surrender the 6 ounce toothpaste tube with 1 ounce of toothpaste gone.
Alaska Airlines now charges for a checked bag but the security hassles with scissors, small blades, toothpaste, shampoo and small bottles of personal effects means checking is required for most passengers.
How are we safer because little old Native ladies with mukluks must remove footwear and clothing before boarding a plane? The TSA folks have been getting more politeness training but it comes with a steel edge. It feels like paramilitary rule the moment you see all those police cars on the departure ramp. Maybe al-Qaida is going to bomb the front of the Ted Stevens Airport.
But don’t comment on these absurdities. You may be pulled out of line and miss your flight.
ADN Kenai columnist Alan Boraas reports with wry amusement on anti-terrorist security closing the neighborhood beaches. Barricades and screening protocols protect public buildings. If terrorists did get it together for an explosion in America, wouldn’t they just run a truck into a crowded restaurant or supermarket, as they have done at home?
Fear distorts any realistic sense of the risks we face. Fear called for extreme measures on every front. Waterboarding a person over one hundred times is not intelligence gathering, it is unvarnished cruelty indicating a depraved moral state.
Creating the Department of Homeland Security was the first fear-driven national legislation. Dozens of new top level patronage positions for the likes of President Bush’s pal "Brownie" were created. Agency missions were distorted.
The Washington office of the FBI required that Alaska personnel be transferred to a terrorism unit to the detriment of other functions. Private security, some of it outsourced from governments, has expanded into a giant industry. We spend billions on ersatz security.
Worse, under the cloak of fear, we are persuaded to accept a society in which authoritarian modes are standardized.
If you want to be safer from a realistic threat, stop looking cross-eyed at your Middle Eastern neighbors and walk instead of driving — and look both ways when you cross the street.
Related Posts:
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=6510
Posted by Veterans Today on May 9 2009, With 0 Reads, Filed under 9/11. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
To post, we ask that you login using Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail in the box below.Don't have a social network account? Register and Login direct with VT and post.
Before you post, read our Comment Policy - Feedback
Thank you for the article with which I agree completely.
The USA is increasingly becoming a very Orwellian, Machiavellian, and authoritarian state.
The “social contract”, the basis of a free republican society, requires respect for and support for individual rights and liberties concomitant with self respect and respect for the rights of others.
It was my perception of this “social contract” that led me to volunteer for the U.S. Army Infantry and serve in Vietnam.
The following quote from President George Washington’s “Farewell Address” clearly and correctly defines further the current “fear based” policies and politics in the USA:
“Nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests.
Real Patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. George Washington”
End of Quote
Being fair and open-minded, I don’t disagree with some of your points. However, as a typical Bush hater, your liberal talking points are at best, ignorant, and at worst, a bold faced lie. Using FER as an example is comical. What did he do to LEGAL Japanese citizens after Pearl Harbor? Compare that to Bush’s policies and who seems “scared”. As far as less information for Congress, again, I just don’t buy it. Last time I checked, an Act is only signed by the President but must first pass through both houses of Congress before getting to his desk. (I know, I know, it was a Republican Congress at the time. Check the voting record please before responding with Liberal talking points.) As evidenced by our current Speaker of the House, Congress conveniently “foregets” things. Whether you agree with Bush’s policies or not, there was clear bi-partisan support for everything that was done including invading Iraq. So disagree with the actions. Believe they have not helped keep us safe. Those are legitimate opinions and you may be correct. But don’t make those assertions from a Bush bashing piont of view. It is either naive or dishonest to do so. The ideological politicization of our national security has to end sometime!