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Excuse me for a moment while I break away from the herd.
Conventional wisdom – as put forth by the Bushites – says that the stringent new security regimen being imposed on us in America’s airports is absolutely necessary to make us safe. Be good boys and girls, they bark, get in line and stay there, surrender your toothpaste and shampoo, keep an eye on your fellow passengers, don’t ask questions… and be very afraid. This to protect you.
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Well, if I thought Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Chertoff, and Gang really were protecting us, or if I thought they even sort of new what they were doing, I might be a good boy and moo along with the herd. But, on two huge levels, our protectors are failing us.
First, they’re stupid enough to think that terrorists are stupid, that the bad guys will keep doing the same thing, rather than figuring out new ways to attack us. So their airport security “plan” has been to keep looking for box cutters and shoe bombs. Until a few weeks ago, Bush was actually trying to cut funding for research on ways to detect someone bringing liquid explosives onto a plane! And now that certain liquids have been found by the Brits to be a weapon, the Bushites have twisted our whole airport security system into a liquid disposal crew – apparently unaware that terrorists will have moved on to a new approach.
Second, rather than pursue strong foreign policies to reduce the desire of foreigners to attack us, the Bush Gang has become a terrorist recruitment poster. They’ve turned Iraq into the world’s foremost terrorist training ground, and they continue to side with and even arm monarchs and dictators in the Muslim world who brutally repress and impoverish their people.
This is Jim Hightower saying… This is pathetically weak leadership. Far from making us safe, our “leaders” are a threat to America’s security – even as they foment fear and use it as a political shield.
Sources:
“Americans getting wise to Republican tactics,” Austin American-Statesman, August 17, 2006.
“Come Wait With Me,” The New York Times, August 14, 2006.
“Intelligence succeeds where force has failed,” Austin American-Statesman, August 16, 2006.