Monday, March 12, 2012

The "War On Terrorism"...

...every time I hear or read that expression I have to laugh...

...I mean, I remember terrorism from when I was in grade school i.e.: school bullies; mean teachers and principals and corporal punishment; physically and mentally abusive alcoholic parents; barroom brawls at the dive bins across the street which occasionally culminated in gunfire.

When these news pundits ramble off Gregorianesque rhetoric about "The War on Terrorism", just what do they have in mind anyway?

Essentially there's always been some form of terrorism in the literal sense.

In the 1980s you had "drug wars" and the DEA and "drug cartels".

In the 1990s and beyond there are all the "gangs" and their operatives: gang-bangers and drive-by shootings---firing lethal weapons into residential units (even when they're after just one person)...
...or just gunning someone down on the streets (for whatever twisted reason).
And all the "road rage" incidents. Citizens attacking "fellow citizens" over minor traffic infractions better left overlooked---and sometimes culminating in aggravated murder at that.

But not once did our federal government respond to the plethora of incidents like those with grandiose speeches about "defending ourselves against those who would trample our freedoms and way-of-life 'who have no regard or respect for life limb or property'", or enact elaborate Draconian laws severely limiting our freedom-of-speech and freedom-of-movement.

Only when certain acts-of-terrorism entered these shores from "outsiders"---specifically foreign radical members of fanatical religious factions---did we suddenly respond as if our "sacred" "utopian" and "peaceful" lifestyles were "suddenly disrupted by 'conspiring' 'menacing' and 'brutal' factions 'obviously intent on destroying us'".

In short, if it's "home-grown" terrorism said acts are simply handled like domestic "criminal offenses"...
...However, let any threat(s) come from abroad and suddenly it's handled like some alien invasion of creatures from a planet outside our galaxy.
Out come the "red alerts" and cliche color-coded "terrorism alert level" fluff.

I say:
Bring back "Duck---and cover". 

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