For being the world’s only Superpower and global empire, we certainly are a pathetic, fearful, demented, wimpy, and easily frightened group. Our shores are filled with Chicken Little’s screaming about Al Qaida and airport security at the drop of a terrorist’s underwear. Now let’s get a grip on our emotions running amok and start thinking as rational human beings.
I’m ashamed of many Americans in politics and the Media. All it takes is a sexually-repressed, ignorant, almost comically religious zealot to have everyone wet their pants when he tries to light up his. Do you really live in some fantasy world that there should be no risks in living? That every one of our institutional and counter-terrorist protocols will forever protect us from any and all tragedies? Just because we’ve lived at the apex of world power for several decades does not remove the laws of physics and unpredictable mathematical luck from affecting all our daily lives. I would hope the majority of Americans have a more reasonable take on life and risk.
The failed Detroit Christmas terrorist attack is not the fault of President Obama or the Secretary of Homeland Security or former Vice-President Cheney, or any single human being. Disasters are generally the cumulative result of many clues and opportunities missed, or a lot of poor decisions made by a group of fellow human beings in various positions of authority. And then there is the universal principle of randomness and simple human incompetence that have been the stalwarts throughout human history.
Hindsight is perfect and unfortunately too many Media pundits and commentators are full of it. They constantly use every opportunity to support their narrow partisan aims without much regard for the best interests of the country. We use the words “strength” and “weakness” as extremes without understanding the many nuances they both possess. Most of our national political discourse has degenerated into comparing the sizes of our sexual organs even if they are effectively functionless. For those who love to sanctimoniously point fingers please finish your futile exercises by putting those same fingers up where the sun rarely shines.
The fact that 9/11/01 has not been repeated on American soil and many other terrorist acts have been thwarted for over eight years are due to 3 essential factors: (1) Good police work on the part of many unknown and unheralded dedicated law enforcement officials across the U.S. and globe; (2) The lack of enough nasty imbeciles willing to blow themselves up and kill others for various moronic religious beliefs; and (3) just plain good luck. At any given time, these three factors could turn against the best interests of the U.S. the same way Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans, and a myriad of natural and man-made disasters could befall any of us at any time.
Even if the last terrorist managed to crash the plane and kill everyone aboard, flying would still be an extremely safe way to travel – far better than driving or bicycling on any objective statistical basis. Most Americans are more likely to die each year from hypertension or slipping in the bathroom than as a result of any terrorist act. Yet we willingly waste billions of dollars to give us empty comfort that the least likely events will rarely happen. It helps that the anti-terrorist business is part of the military industrial complex which is one of the major corporate controllers of our utterly corrupt Congress along with the financial and healthcare industries.
So let’s all grow up, get on the plane, and definitely stop complaining, worrying and living in fear. Our political response has been pathetic in making flying more obnoxious without actually addressing real security gaps and taking a few common sense approaches. However, even with the best of security measures, the evil ones will occasionally get through. Life is unfair and unpredictable, so file a complaint with the Almighty when you get to the other side. For the living survivors, you should call a good personal injury lawyer.
Every time we increase security measures in a variety of illogical and silly ways, the terrorists win a measure of control over us because they scare and frighten us into changing our lives to more resemble their depressing lives in caves and tents. If you think this last terrorist was their best attempt, it was a pretty lousy recruiting effort and overall project. Most prior successful terrorists had the technical control, effective group effort, and adequate weaponry to pull things off.
The planners for the Detroit Christmas airplane bomb attempt didn’t even have the sense to put together a good back-up plan. Since the genital bomber didn’t succeed as a result of the quick intervention of some smart fellow passengers and a lucky (or unlucky) technical glitch in his jockstrap, he’s now likely to be permanently out of commission as a paraplegic castrato. That should make a few potential terrorists think twice before volunteering because a guy with no genitals can’t have much fun with 27 virgins.
Non-Moslems are not going to reform Islam. The majority of Moslems are not ready or able to confront the current demons that challenge their historically open-minded and globally-respected religious traditions. It’s hard moving some people from the 16th Century to the 21st in just a few decades. So we are going to have to live with a small group of nasty nuts for another decade or so. Other religions might ferment new extremists and dangerous zealots so we might have even more entertainment in the future. Image the future news item: “Rampaging Vegan Quakers Disrupt Arbor Day Festivities by Trashing All Meat Items Brought for the Community Picnic.”
Over the past decade, the vast majority of victims of most Islamic terrorists have been other Moslems who were shopping, working, eating, and attending sporting events and wedding ceremonies. You’re not going to win many supporters over the long haul with such a track record of killing such innocents as clearly defined in the Koran.
Eventually all terrorist groups die out as a result of burnout and a lack of new recruits. When they have 80-year-old Imams personally blowing themselves up, that will be a good sign they’re about finished. Osama Ben Laden is not getting any younger and he’ll die or be killed by a drone and that will further reduce the appeal of Al Qaida. He could move to Cuba and learn Castro’s trick for an amazing long life – perhaps it’s the really inexpensive universal healthcare that you can’t access from a Pakistani cave or any American city. Eventually all the incendiary terrorist Internet sites will be just a few clicks from pornography or another YouTube Monty Python Clip.
It has been convenient for many people around the world to blame the U.S. Global Empire for all types of things that are really their own fault, nobody’s fault, or the fault of many different actors. However, letting ourselves in the U.S. succumb to idiotic finger-pointing, bureaucratic over-reactions, and fermenting irrational fear, anger and unobtainable demands for perfection, only drags us down to the gutter level of the Islamic terrorists and the comedic Chicken Little’s of the World.
Unfortunately, there will be many other unsuccessful and a few successful terrorist attacks within the U.S. and around the globe over the next decade. That’s just life. Now stop worrying about something over which we have little control. Let’s move on to concentrating on many more enjoyable things during our brief visit on this planet.
Submitted by Marc Pascal, ranting as usual from warm, sunny Phoenix, AZ. I wish a very happy 2010 to all the TMV editors, writers, bloggers, commentators and readers. I have resolved this year to (1) lose some weight, (2) not suffer any fools lightly, and (3) encourage everyone to immediately laugh in the faces of and show no respect for all the ridiculous statements made by our political, economic, business, social and media leaders of all political parties.