Gunning for It

They're talking about things of which
they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.
It's only because of their stupidity
that they're able to be so sure of themselves 

--The Trial, Kafka 

We didn't love freedom enough 
--The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

_________________

The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) has spawned myths that have been sewn into our gun culture.

We were told that being alert would alleviate our fear and neutralize the threat, a threat left largely undefined.  The first reaction to the 9-11-01 attacks was to place National Guard riflemen in the airports of America to create a simulacrum safety net against the "bad guys".

From this image issued a cornucopia of terrorist TV and movie depictions of terrorists bearing old fashioned AK's and semi-auto pistols being ferreted out from behind every bush by brave Jack Bauers.  The problem with this media-driven bravado was that it did not address the actual threat.

The closest we came to suffering this sort of threat was the inside the wire shooting by Major Nidal Hasan at Ft. Hood, an event which was entirely predictable and avoidable (as were the World Trade Center attacks themselves if anyone had connected the dots.)  Terrorism was not the problem, but rather a failure of leadership.

The collective insanity of our national reaction to a containable terror threat has led to a warped perception that our safety is enhanced by firearms, a hyperbolic idea beaten into our consciousness at all levels.

The United States has not seen a significant firearms-related terrorist event and we will not because such an attack would lack the drama demanded by the terrorists.  Terror must be significant and, well, terrifying.  It is unlikely that terrorists will ever engage in shootouts in the Homeland.

We confuse the low-intensity conflict in far-flung reaches of the earth like Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Israel, Philippines, Mexico, Columbia, et. al. with U.S. concerns at home, leading us to the false conclusion that this will happen in America.  Being so misled allows the proliferation of government security excesses and the militarization of our civilian security and law enforcement agencies.  While this does not make us safer, it does make us less free.

Imagine what our unemployment rates would look like if the people employed by the current U.S. security apparatus, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -- as though we were Britain during the Blitz -- were not padding about in para-pornographic airport pursuits.  How many people are employed in nebulous security functions that provide no protection from any actual threat.  Security and Prisons are the only growth industries in America.

The entire system is like a metastasized cancer -- it is systemic, but we do not see it because we are in the tumor.

We fail to see the fiscal cliff that is based upon security, defense and intelligence activities that have little or any rational basis for their existence.

Sandy

Outside of the Republican Bubble,
there are facts
--Bill Maher 

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you 
--Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime, 
The Korgis 

Oh, where is my Sandy?
What does she do each day and night?
Well, I follow her behavior
The way she do it just ain't right 
--Sandy, John Mayall
 __________________

RAW is very sorry that the people already so harshly dealt with by Hurricane Sandy are going through another Nor'Easter before they have begun to recover (Northeaster Adds to Misery, Dumping Rain and Snow).  This is just a small observation on the differing use of the National Guard in the United States during its two most recent devastating storm events, Hurricane Katrina (2005, Category 5 storm) and Sandy. 

In their response following Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard was armed and decked out in combat gear.  Homeland Security hired additional armed para-military contractors from groups like Blackwater.  The remaining population of New Orleans was corralled into a large stadium, in which they could be contained.

In the aftermath to Hurricane Sandy this month in the Northeast, the National Guard did not provide an armed defense.

Why the difference?

Charlie Rules the Night

We held the day in the palm of our hands
They ruled the nights, and the nights
Seemed to last as long as six weeks
--Goodnight Saigon, Billy Joel
___________________

In 1968 Vietnam one thing was certain: While the U.S. could control the terrain on which it stood, Charlie Ruled the Night. 42 years on, different continent, same mantra.

I had the finest and most extensive training a soldier could experience before deployment, but that did not change the formula which still holds 42 years later in the Sandbox. It is little surprise. Think our Castle Doctrine . . . we are unwelcome guests in their home. The U.S. military remains, as readers Minstrel Boy says, farkling about smartly, cruising for a bruising -- but mostly trying to stay alive.

And U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said recently the terror threat from individuals radicalized inside the United States -- "homegrown terrorists" -- has grown since 2001. Napolitano issued a vague "One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens" (Terror threat 'most heightened' since 9/11, Napolitano Says).

After billions of dollars and ten Long War years, we learn in Senate testimony that our security is more tenuous than when we embarked upon this campaign. What does this mean? Possibilities:

[1] A Phony War on Terror (Phony War on Terror ©) is in fact unwinnable.
[2] Our leaders are not effective leaders
[3] Our goals are unattainable
[4] Everything we are told is a lie

We hew to the Lie Theory. Napolitano is remiss to make a declaration sans qualification. If she cannot quantify the threat, how can she declare for it? Why have we seen no suicide bombers stateside? It feels like Ms. Napolitano is delivering us of a Dilbert Moment:

• We are not secure

• All of the money we spent has been wasted to no avail

• We need more money to solve this problem

• Oh, and as HSA Director I have no clue as to what constitutes safety from terrorism. But it is on-the-job training . . . baby steps, y'know

If the U.S. had done nothing after 9-11, would we still be at the same, high, threat level? What have the trillions of dollars spent thus far gained us? The real questions are how does a politician with no security or intelligence training provide security to the nation and why do the taxpayers finance this folly?

Since the terrorist attack of 9-11-01, the number of deaths of U.S. citizens at the hands of terrorists CONUS has remained around 3,000 (that is, it hasn't budged). Contrast this to the number of those killed or imprisoned by U.S. counter-terrorism policy: If we are no safer, what did all of this carnage gain us?

The wars have neither addressed the threat nor made us safer. Therefore, the war is not defensive in nature. The Just War metric has not been met, and people like Napolitano are as much of the problem as are al-Qaeda terrorists.

The larger threat may not be terrorism but rampant institutional ignorance and misdirection.