Terrorism is expanding. The story of the intrusive searches by the TSA at airports continues daily. The actions of the NSA are disturbing to most rational thinking adults. More and more people grow disturbed with the specter of living in a police state; but many are missing the more important issue.
The President once issued a brief statement about the growing controversy, saying ‘there really was no better way’. The TSA chief added to that, stating that although some refinements may be made, essentially the pat downs are going to stay, no matter how many or how much people howl. The NSA is moving forward of their plan to monitor everything, and store it all for future use. Obviously, there is some disparity in the way government perceives the problem and the way the average American does. And that’s the REAL problem- that government feels that it is smarter, better equipped, and better educated about how to handle airport security. Most importantly, government acts like it has a right to do what it wants, regardless of the will of the people, or how ridiculous the situation may spin out of control.
It views Americans as the problem- and not the terrorists.
The issue of air travel security and espionage is not new, either to America, or the world. For almost as long as Americans have traveled by air, there have been hijackings, bombings and terrorist threats to travelers. As each terrorist attack has hit the industry and our homes, government has sought ways to prevent and stop more attacks. From an historical point of view, almost all have failed, and yet the security continues to increase.
Much to the terrorists delight, of course.
The goal of terrorism is not blow up planes or murder civilians– that is merely the mechanism of their attack. Terrorism, particularly terrorism against capitalist nations like America, seeks to disrupt and destroy trade, and personal freedoms. The very concept of individual freedoms is hateful to those who stand for Islamic fundamentalism. They view an individual acting with free will, as a threat not only to their power, but also to their religion of control and self-sacrifice to their leadership. The concept of individualism stands in direct opposition to religious fanaticism, which gains strength when the individual acquiesces to the will of the whole.
Thus, when they attack air travel or public events, they do not need to actually blow anything up, or destroy anything; only the potential of it happening is enough for their goals. In panicked fashion, we blockade our own air ports of entry, we bend the 4th Amendment rights of citizens, we infuriate the population against our own leaders, and we drive costs up to the breaking point on our fragile economy. Take a look at the recent attacks on an air cargo plane- the package they sent was poorly constructed, and there is some doubt about whether the bomb would have actually gone off. And all the while, they smuggle in drugs and traffic in human lives on our southern border, which is a far greater threat to safety and national security.
It was not an attempt to blow a plane or kill some runners in Boston; so much as it was an attempt to disrupt our individual freedoms. With the ‘people are stupid’ mentality in Washington, they bought right into it. Hook, line and sinker.
The solution to terrorism is not to search children and nuns at our airports or listen to phone calls. The solution is to make terrorism unsuccessful in its attempts to disrupt and demoralize our society. We must not increase security, but make it effective through means that heretofore we have not used- namely, profiling at airports, and aggressive and costly military action against our enemies in the field and dishonoring (not killing) the enemy leaders. We must understand that we are in a war, and the war comes with casualties of blood, not the freedoms of our citizens. We must finally accept that our enemy is not some random figure in a ticket line, but militant Islamic fundamentalism. They must be hunted down and eliminated, both physically and in their mythology, so as to not make them martyrs, regardless of the costs.
America must shrug off the political correctness of being fair to our enemies, at the expense of the majority.
It must understand that Americans are not sheep to be herded, but individuals living in a free society. This is the legacy of our forefathers, who in their wisdom built a country by a document that limited government powers, not the citizenry.
This is what terrorists want to destroy, not our airplanes in the sky, nor the people in our streets.
