Americans are being sold a problem that is creating a solutionwhich is cementing a change in society that will give Americans the delusion that something has been done to benefit the average American but which is really being executed on behalf of corporations and other interests who have been profiting enormously from the "war on terror."
But, this problem isn't even really a problem at all. Procedures and systems aren't failing anymore than they did after they were instituted following 9/11.
The terror watch lists were working as good as they could and as good as they will ever work for they will always feature individuals who may be dead or who may have already attacked the United States, heads of state like Bolivian President Evo Morales, common names like Robert Johnson and John Williams that lead to interrogations of people who share these common names every time they go to the airport, etc. And, the list will forever be a product of intelligence similar to the intelligence used to determine there were WMDs in Iraq will inflate the list to hundreds of thousands of names.
Detection procedures were working just fine. The "problem" is there is no limit to the failures airport security may experience. Software failures, hardware or equipment malfunctions, human errors, and inabilities to detect terrorist acts of sheer ingenuity, creativity, and imagination are all inevitable.
And, a list of countries similar to Obama's list of countries were tried once before as a way of preventing terrorism. Citizens from countries on the list faced an increased amount of security procedures happened before with Bush's NSEERS program, a program that targeted individuals based on their ethnic origin, race, nationality, religion, or gender. [See the following report from the American-Arabe Anti-Discrimination Committee for more details.]
How many attacks were prevented thanks to the NSEERS program? According to a report on the Rachel Maddow Show on January 5, 2010, none.
"It Takes Your Enemy and Your Friend, Working Together to Hurt You to the Heart"
The countries on Obama's list (if you haven't figure out) all have one thing in common. Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen all are countries that are most likely to have populations with unfavorable viewpoints toward past American military interventions.
One can ask why these countries would even have "terrorists" in the first place who were looking to attack America. We could ask what forces would be motivating "terrorists" to act out against the U.S. But, that negates clues that the official story of the now infamous underwear bomber doesn't really add up.
Read Tom Burghardt's well-researched article, "The Strange Case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab," and tell me you believe Americans have gotten the full story on the underwear bomber.
Look at this Metro Detroit News report which covers a Flight 253 passenger who saw a "sharp-dressed man" aid terror suspect Abdulmutallab as he was trying to get on board the plane.
We Americans may never know what really happened with the botched Christmas bombing that has sent the ruling elite into a frenzy that may or may not be a charade (some of these politicians I believe are paranoid about terrorism and should use their government health care to get psychiatric help immediately).
But, we can seek out the truth and keep digging through information on the web. We can keep the conversation about what we actually know when talking to friends and family and keep the focus away from why we should be afraid and whether we will actually prevent terror or not with these new measures.
We can take this moment to maturely consider how and why government is choosing to simply apply the same reaction to intelligence failures and homeland security problems that they have applied in the past to address the issue of terrorism.
We can objectively address what is transforming airport security and vehemently oppose it without letting the stigma of terrorism get in the way of common sense. And, we can take this as an opportunity to truly call out the "war on terror" for what it is.
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