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defrogYr required reading for the weekend: this article on counterterrorist expert Michael Sheehan, who has a new book coming out on fighting teh terrorisms. His message: to fight teh terrors, you need a sense of perspetive to understand the nature of the threat so that you can prioritize yr efforts. And basically, he says, al Qaeda is overrated.
Yes, they pulled off 9/11, because the US govt underestimated the threat. But since then, everyone’s been overestimating their capabilities as though they could do another 9/11 like, whenever they wanted. You’ll notice they haven’t. And according to Sheehan, that’s because they’re just not that good. Dangerous? Sure. But not nearly as dangerous as certain people have made them out to be.
This is important because we’ve spent seven years under the Bush Mantra that we are all in grave danger and could all die in a horrible explosion, and that’s why we need to declare war on Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and whoever, and that’s why we need to spy on everybody and build up massive databases on you and create no-fly lists so strict even air marshals get banned, and that’s why we need to build big fences around Mexico, and fingerprint everyone who comes into the country and ban water on airplanes and ...
Are you getting all of this?
It’s the Big Fear policy that’s led to policies all over the country where standing around taking pictures constitutes “suspicious behavior”. Remember that story a year ago where the FBI distributed photos of two vaguely Middle Eastern looking guys on a Washington State ferry who seemed to be taking an “unusual interest” in the ferry?
Turns out they were software consultants from Europe in town for a week-long business conference, and had never seen a ferry with car capacity. Oops! Oh well, at least we didn’t have to ship them to Guantanamo Bay for six years like we did that cameraman from Al-Jazeera to find out they weren’t terrorists.
I know some people will say, “So what? Better safe than sorry, right?” I don’t agree. Bruce Schneier has said this a hundred times already, but it’s worth repeating: when you have a security policy that deems otherwise reasonable behavior as suspicious – especially if it's being done by people who kinda sorta look Muslim (and we all know what THEY look like) – you not only veer into police-state territory, you also waste valuable resources chasing geese. The DHS warned us in February that if you see a woman who looks nine-months pregnant, be careful – she might be a suidice bomber. Res ipsa loquitur.
When history evaluates the first decade of the 21st century, it will reveal that Team Bush milked the Fear Card for all it was worth. Unfortunately, this is also the reason why politicians have to blather on like al Qaeda's this giant-ass threat to yr personal safety, because no one wants to look soft on terror, and no one wants that on their permanent record when another attack happens. And I have five American dollars that says the Team Bush Fear Factory is why grown-ups are still afeared of Barack HUSSEIN Obama becoming teh Presidents because they think he’s Muslim, and therefore THE ENEMY.
No fear,
This is dF
Yes, they pulled off 9/11, because the US govt underestimated the threat. But since then, everyone’s been overestimating their capabilities as though they could do another 9/11 like, whenever they wanted. You’ll notice they haven’t. And according to Sheehan, that’s because they’re just not that good. Dangerous? Sure. But not nearly as dangerous as certain people have made them out to be.
This is important because we’ve spent seven years under the Bush Mantra that we are all in grave danger and could all die in a horrible explosion, and that’s why we need to declare war on Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and whoever, and that’s why we need to spy on everybody and build up massive databases on you and create no-fly lists so strict even air marshals get banned, and that’s why we need to build big fences around Mexico, and fingerprint everyone who comes into the country and ban water on airplanes and ...
Are you getting all of this?
It’s the Big Fear policy that’s led to policies all over the country where standing around taking pictures constitutes “suspicious behavior”. Remember that story a year ago where the FBI distributed photos of two vaguely Middle Eastern looking guys on a Washington State ferry who seemed to be taking an “unusual interest” in the ferry?
Turns out they were software consultants from Europe in town for a week-long business conference, and had never seen a ferry with car capacity. Oops! Oh well, at least we didn’t have to ship them to Guantanamo Bay for six years like we did that cameraman from Al-Jazeera to find out they weren’t terrorists.
I know some people will say, “So what? Better safe than sorry, right?” I don’t agree. Bruce Schneier has said this a hundred times already, but it’s worth repeating: when you have a security policy that deems otherwise reasonable behavior as suspicious – especially if it's being done by people who kinda sorta look Muslim (and we all know what THEY look like) – you not only veer into police-state territory, you also waste valuable resources chasing geese. The DHS warned us in February that if you see a woman who looks nine-months pregnant, be careful – she might be a suidice bomber. Res ipsa loquitur.
When history evaluates the first decade of the 21st century, it will reveal that Team Bush milked the Fear Card for all it was worth. Unfortunately, this is also the reason why politicians have to blather on like al Qaeda's this giant-ass threat to yr personal safety, because no one wants to look soft on terror, and no one wants that on their permanent record when another attack happens. And I have five American dollars that says the Team Bush Fear Factory is why grown-ups are still afeared of Barack HUSSEIN Obama becoming teh Presidents because they think he’s Muslim, and therefore THE ENEMY.
No fear,
This is dF
