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9/11...
... was called a declaration of war. And, in a way, it was, but not the war that the politicians wanted us to think.
It was a war against trust. A war against acceptance of risk in the real world. A war against our freedom, not by Muslim terrorists, but by our own people.
We are currently losing this war, as we were from the moment the PATRIOT act was passed. We continue to lose it as long as it, and similar laws, remain in force, as long as we are searched by increasingly intrusive means for weapons just to be able to fly for an hour, as long as our politicians and police justify any level of violence, intrusion, surveillance, and confiscation in the name of "terrorism".
I mourn for the people who died that day. And I mourn for the wound that it dealt our country, a wound that various groups are trying their best not to heal, but to cut open wider.
It was a war against trust. A war against acceptance of risk in the real world. A war against our freedom, not by Muslim terrorists, but by our own people.
We are currently losing this war, as we were from the moment the PATRIOT act was passed. We continue to lose it as long as it, and similar laws, remain in force, as long as we are searched by increasingly intrusive means for weapons just to be able to fly for an hour, as long as our politicians and police justify any level of violence, intrusion, surveillance, and confiscation in the name of "terrorism".
I mourn for the people who died that day. And I mourn for the wound that it dealt our country, a wound that various groups are trying their best not to heal, but to cut open wider.
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That's the "acceptance of risk" I mentioned. You want freedom? You risk someone abusing that freedom and hurting you, your family, your friends. You want safety? Give up your freedom. "Those who would give up their liberty to procure a temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I prefer the freedom.
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Oh, come on. Muslim terrorists blowing up buildings in America? That could never happen. Well it happened once 13 years ago, but that was just the big scene Michael Bay used to start the movie! They don't have the special effects budget to show more such incidents. They'd just happen off-screen, which means not to any important characters.
.... but then just treat them as the criminals they'd be.
Given the way Muslim terrorists choose to blow up buildings, what would this mean? Picking their remains out of the rubble and then giving said remains a fair trial?
China, if sufficiently hostile, would be a threat to us -- but still not one justifying scanning and searching every single American citizen every time they happen to want to go somewhere.
Actually, if China were doing her utmost to destroy us, our war effort would involve considerably more than just internal checkpoints. Or did you miss the point that China is a nuclear-armed Great Power with considerable strategic, air and naval forces?
You seem to also be missing the point that ISIS has not only declared itself to be an independent political entity -- a "Caliphate," in fact -- but actually has an army and territory. How big does ISIS have to grow before you will accept its reality?
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