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Originally Posted by lackluster
Well, quite frankly, I see fear mongering, but I also see many heads in the sand. Flip sides of the same coin, really, since the latter seems a response to the former, and elicits even more of the same which then perpetuates the cycle.
On the part of fear mongering, I see the manipulation of fear being used in partisan ways, with charges that one's opponant is "soft" on terrorism as the ultimate appeal to soldier support for many other agendas besides just the war against terrorism.
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Don't forget to add unconstitutional violation of American civil rights.
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Originally Posted by lackluster
On the paret of denial, I see plenty examples of people engaging in apologia for that which they really haven't studied, and who defend one thing under the misapprehension they are defending aginst something else. They engage in dismissal and misdirection rather than inquiry, and simply do not care to understand the ideologies involved.
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Such vagueries.
One might think you actually have a point, until one realizes you haven't really shown what you're really talking about.
1) "really haven't studied"
Quite frankly, I've been talking to people about two things. First, a threat to U.S. governmental system by VOTING CHANGES to it in a democratic way. I have yet to see any evidence of such a threat in the U.S., and am not sure how to "study" something that doesn't exist. I have researched statistics on Muslim population, and have shown those results.
Second, a threat to U.S. life by terroristic activities. And on that, I have no doubts that it's a reality.
But by the same token, the existence of such a terroristic threat does not mean we should automatically give up our rights.
You criticize "research", yet our government (in another thread) has recently ruled that we cannot bring a law-suit to prevent illegal and hidden wire-tapping if we cannot prove we are being wire-tapped. But of course, they get to continue hiding the details of their illegal activity.
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Originally Posted by lackluster
As far as I'm concerned, what we need as a country is less partisanship with the knee jerk polemics that follow suit and more time spent upon understanding the nature of the threat. We may disagree on TACTICS we see fit to combat the threat, but perhaps if we could at least agree that we are all in this together and that the threat is real, we wouldn't spend so much time tearing at each other and turn our attention to the actual threat, instead.
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I agree on this.
Quite frankly, one thing that bugs the hell out of me is that MANY deficiencies were shown in how our government does business to keep us safe after 9/11, and it seems NONE of them got fixed.
Mock bombs still get through airport security.
Our two main "intelligence" agencies still don't share enough real information to make progress.
The existing intel isn't used effectively.
But the solution to that seems to be to grant the government MORE power, instead of making them work properly with the power they already have???
