On The "Politics of Fear"...

President Obama came out 2 days after the Christmas Day terror attempt by a 23 year old Nigerian man and said that a passenger had "allegedly tried to ignite explosives". The next Day Homeland Security chief Napolitano came out and said "the system had worked". Then she said it didn't. Now The President said that we had the information, but we did not act on it properly.

I've had it. While our President and his team of brain surgeons sit around and try and decide whether or not to use the term "enemy combatant", terrorists have to be laughing at us. The ACLU is concerned that body scanners at airports might be "an assault on the essential dignity of passengers", ignoring the fact that in the past, terrorists have shown no compunction at using children as living bombs in attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now awaiting his trial in a Manhattan court room. The 23 year old Nigerian man who "allegedly" tried to blow up a plane is now lawyered-up, "with full rights", as if he tried to rob the local convenience store. What is happening here? An administration full of ideologues have decided that protecting the rights of terrorists who have proclaimed the desire to kill Americans is more important than protecting Americans. We are really not allowed to be Americans...we are just a country of people who are more concerned with how the world sees us than our own safety. The pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that it scares me. Why does our President have such a hard time saying that there are people out there who want to kill us, and we need to protect our country?

Let's talk about profiling for a minute. There is an extreme use of this practice which could probably borderline on enabling and encouraging prejudice. But given the current condition of the world, I see no way around it. If every terrorist who has committed a violent act in the last 10 years is an Arab of the Muslim faith..then it seems to me you have to be suspicious of anyone of this description. Yes, I know...very unfair to all of those honorable Muslim Arabs who would never participate in these acts. But unfortunately, the safety of our country trumps their feelings. If the local mall is burglarized 10 times in a row by a blond, blue eyed woman who is 5'9'', I fully expect for the police to be keeping an eye on me when I enter the mall. It's like drawing a picture of a suspect...you have to know who you are looking for. If you are wrong, so be it. But as we learn early on, the way to narrow down a search is to look for similar characteristics and go with the odds.

I don't believe in torture. But I also don't believe in putting a criminal in a 4 -star hotel and discussing what they did over a nice meal. If there are humane ways to get a terrorist to tell us what he knows, I am all for it. I have ambivalent feelings about the closing of Guitmo.....on one hand, I want to be sure that basic human rights are insured....on the other hand, when a terrorist's rights are equal to mine......I'm not sure.

I'm sick of hearing about the "politics of fear". Unfortunately, no matter what you want to call it, there are real reasons to be afraid in our world. Ask the passengers who were on that flight on Christmas day how they feel. Do you think they would be opposed to having a body scan before they walk onto a plane next time? Do you think they will object to having any young Nigerian men who have just been to Yemen pulled aside for questioning? I doubt it.

The Husband use to travel 300 days a year. We use to fly all over the world fairly often. I am thankful that we do not have to do that anymore. It's not a matter of being "scared"...but more a matter of being realistic. There was time after 9/11 when you at least felt that our government was trying to look out for us...trying to protect us. Maybe they went overboard...maybe they made some mistakes. But at least they were trying. At least they weren't sitting around a table trying to make sure that the terrorists were given full rights....

Am I suppose to be excited that the President came out yesterday, weeks after the Christmas Day incident, and admitted that they (our intelligence community) let us down. "We had the information, but we didn't act on it". Maybe that needs to be the round-table discussion for the day at the White House.....If we knew this man was a threat...why weren't we acting on it?

Until tomorrow...when we all need to be pushing that pendulum in the other direction....