President Bush
keeps reiterating that if we don't confront the terrorists in Iraq, we'll have
to fight them here in the streets at home. Yet the reality may be that we are
fighting them here already.
An open question,
however, is still why, in the light of our vulnerability here in America, have
we not been subjected to any major terrorist attacks since 9/11?
Congressman James Walsh,
in defending the Bush administration, recently claimed that the Bush
anti-terrorist campaign has been most successful, as indicated by the main
criterion of success that there have been no attacks in this country. He
heralds this as a success, even though internationally, and in Iraq, terrorist
attacks have increased tenfold since 9/11.
Considering the
widespread vulnerability of American ports and lack of control over the content
of cargo imports, the open areas of land crossings where terrorists could
easily penetrate, and the many targets in this country available to them, one
might conclude that the terrorists are, indeed, up to something. Either that or
the "terrorist" success of 9/11 proved to them to be such an
outstanding victory, that through it alone they are accomplishing major goals
in destroying the American economy and breaking down our long-standing
democracy without a single further move necessary; especially when fear can be
so easily invoked in the American people who yield to almost anything the
government wants to impose on them in the name of security.
Our alleged chief
enemy, al-Qaeda, once again is attempting to induce a vague fear in us by
threatening "dire consequences" if we do not convert to Islam in this
country. Is al-Qaeda not so weakened, however, as a tiger without teeth, that
their victory still resides in the success of 9/11? They have helped to trap us
in Bush's spend-and-borrow economy. In the Bush administration, our freedom of
movement and right to privacy have been curtailed, as the imminent terror
danger has been politicized to the point of defeat. (Some observers contend
that we have already lost the war to al-Qaeda.)
As a criterion of success, viz., the absence of
terrorists attacking us in the streets and any further terrorist attacks in
this country of any consequence, it hardly seems to be a valid measure that we
have been free from terrorist aggression in this country. The latter seems most
true since, in the name of war against the alleged Islamic terrorists, while
operating under the rubric of "patriotism," we have knowingly or
unknowingly been giving up our freedoms and privileges that we previously
treasured so highly as Americans.
