Be afraid, be very afraid

[Dispatcher]

One of the most frequently used tools by any government is fear.
Fear is the reason we Americans allow two wars to be waged simultaneously with dubious results. Fear is why the Bush administration and the CIA have been able to toss the Geneva Convention, increase the President's power, and pretty much do as they please. Fear is why our government is willing and able to spend billions on unending wars.
But what IS the fear? You hear people in the current administration say that 9/11 changed everything. But just what is our government afraid of?
More people getting killed in terrorist attacks? That's funny, because last time I checked, more people have been killed in the Iraq war then were killed on 9/11. And more people are murdered in the US in one year then were killed in the terrorist attacks. So maybe, just maybe, it's not you and I that the government seeks to protect, but themselves. Our government didn't rush into war the first time the World Trade Center was attacked and a bomb set off, and some will say it's because a lot of people were not killed. But I think it was because the attack did not threaten Washington.
But when a plane was flown into the Pentagon on 9/11....whoa, that's close to home. And when I say "home", I mean The White House. But a plane being deliberately crashed anywhere in Washington gets the all the Feds very nervous. It's one thing for 3000 or so to die in New York, it quite another matter when the target is our seat of government.
And since Bush and his pals wanted to invade iraq and increase their power long before 9/11, what better time to play the fear card then right after a terrorist attack. And play it they did. "Make them afraid, very afraid, and they will let us do whatever we want".
I'm not saying 9/11 was some kind of conspiracy by our government.
I never bought into that line of bull.
But one has to wonder what would it be like, if instead of going to war, we spent those multi billions of dollars making the next attack next to impossible.
It could have been done. That is exactly what the British did when they were attacked by terrorists. They made it as difficult as possible to carry out such an attack.
Of course, no amount of security or preventive measures can completely rule out an attack. But it seems to me to be a more cost effective way to fight terrorism. Our government also needs to do an honest appraisal of why radical Muslims want to kill us in the first place. The idea of "We are America, and we'll do as we please and if you don't like it we'll kill you" just isn't working anymore. That's the same attitude the terrorists have, and it's not working real well for them either.
I'm not saying we should appease terrorists. I am saying we need to know our enemies, and examine how they became our enemies, and know just what part our government had in pissing them off in the first place.
Then we have to find a solution that doesn't get thousands of American soldiers and civilians killed, and doesn't bankrupt our country trying to carry out multiple wars with no attainable goal and no end.
And we as American people have to quit buying into the fear mongers and examine their real motives.
Christ, you have a much better chance of getting killed in a car accident on your way to work than by getting killed by a terrorist attack.
But we don't declare a "War On Car Accidents" do we?