Safe sects?
I got into another one of "those" political arguments today; this time with my accountant. He alleged that America was safer since 9/11 because of measures like the Patriot Act and that the hit to civil liberties was a small price to pay for freedom and security from terrorism.
I don't know how to answer these arguments. I've heard them from several intelligent people over the last year. I've noticed that most of them are not really well-read on current events and tend to believe what authority figures tell them and hey, what's wrong with that? Maybe it's a different upbringing or something cultural that causes some of us to question authority and others to embrace it.
Are we safer? Has the Iraqi war and the controversial domestic espionage and the way we treated prisoners of war helped avert another disaster?
After all, Bush and Cheney say so. They have clearances and would know. They are the mythical "they" that we always talk about. If "they" don't know, then who would?
I know deep in my heart that we are not safer. I feel that we've fomented trouble that will rain down on our heads for at least a generation to come. i believe that the reason that there hasn't been a major terrorist attack in the last 4 years since 9/11 is the same reason that there wasn't one for the four years preceding it--the terrorists didn't want to or were unable to.
I don't believe that curtailing the rights of Americans is the solution and it chills me to the core to think that the definition of what is terrorism may change. Yesterday's communist is todays Islamic terrorist is tomorrow's environmentalist.
What opinions will be safe? Which groups can I join that won't put me on a list? Now we find out that PETA was being investigated by the FBI for being a terrorist organization. We already know that reading material can cause suspicion and although it's never been publicly admitted, I suspect that being a Muslim is pretty much guaranteed to merit the subject an FBI file.
Are we really safer now? Safer from what? Sometimes I think that better the terrorist with a sword than a bureaucrat with a pen. At least the terrorist kills with only one cut.
Posted on December 20, 2005
