Cry Wolf

As seen through out the previous 4 years, alerts and threat levels have risen and subsided. Terrorist bomb plots and no fly lists are examined and released to the public. Jose Padilla is arrested then released. Terrorists in Southern Florida are arrested then… we will have to wait for their release. This “Cry Wolf” tactic is the only definitive domestic policy that this administration adheres to, when political situations or a general feeling that the country has lost its vigor; a new terror plot is released. The examples, even though they can not be absolutely correlated (in fact nothing can be absolutely correlated), are vast. Over ten different examples are documented where either political or social situations arise which are detrimental to the administration then coupled with a terror alert.

By contrast a well functioning administration would not want to release this warning to the public. The release of information only gives terrorists groups’ information, which will help their attacks. How is it in our national security interest to inform terrorists that we know what they are doing? Can the public are large help track down and hunt terrorists? Are we as citizens responsible for collecting intelligence about terrorists’ cells? Are we able to use high quality surveillance and listening equipment? Absolutely not.

We, even though the minute men would disagree, do not have the authority, expertise or wherewithal to infiltrate and uncover terrorist schemes and plots. Does this mean we close our eyes to the world and our environment, no of course not, be the federal government’s pronouncement of threats does not make us safer, and its goal is not to incorporate Americans to help fight, so the question remains why are these threats announced to the public? The answer is simply to elicit fear and shift media attention to the administrations hold on force. The monopoly on force is the only administrative tool the current government has at its disposal. It must show everyone that it is the paternal father figure watching closely over his children. And when the children become too aware of the administrations lack of leadership, planning, transparency, trust, and honesty then threats must be reintroduced. The administration must confuse domestic and foreign policy issues and create fact from conjecture, so as to re-legitimize its aggression. This is the new ‘big stick’ of government; however the stick is now aimed at the citizenry.