Tue 8 Aug 2006
As I caught up with my blogs as well as my TV/Videos, I ran across this entry. Boing Boing: Only traitors try to make us afraid of terrorists I have recently been pondering how exactly the Bush Administration is going to win this war against Terrorism. Reading this helped me along the lines of thought I was already following and was firmed up in a conversation I had with one of my sisters on board the Norwegian Star this past week. Her comment was essentially an expression of utter outrage at the “Patriots Act” and though as with many other people I converse with in one form or another we don’t always agree on all points, in this one we definitely concurr.
Who is the greatest Terrorist and how do you win a war against any of them? I could in no means put a clearer definition on what terrorism is than does the author of this post. It is similar to the thinking I had while riding on the Norwegian Star and the early discussion turned to a story of a Cruise ship that ran into some trouble just off of Port Canaveral, Fl. Terror is fear. And any policies based on fear only logically become policies of terror. It actually is irrelevant as to whether we are in more danger of a lighting strike, or being hit by a bus while crossing the street, or even slipping and falling to our deaths in the bath tub than we are of a terrorist attack, in the US or anywhere else in the world. The way to win a war on terrorism is not to send our troops over to combat in a sustained conflict that results in a growing attrition of the peoples spirit and the lives of the very same allied forces. Instead, the way to win the war on Terrorism is as Schneier on Security states: “by not becomming terrorized — that is, anything that enhances fear effectively gives in to them.” I guess that still leaves one question. Who is the greatest Terrorist? The one who starts the fear, or the one who keeps the fear growing and alive? Could it be the very victims of terrorism themselves, by supporting those who continue to dupe and deceive those who elected them? A patriot smothers the fear and kills terrorism.
[GP:Spokane]
