Terrorism as a Nuisance
In a New York Times Magazine article, John Kerry was quoted saying, ''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance. As a former law enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.''
Predictably, the Republicans have taken this as an indication that Kerry views terrorism as a nuisance on a par with prostitution and gambling (which again raises the question, are they really this dumb or are they just dishonest, or both?).
In all honesty, the Republicans, as revealed by their actions and words for the last three years, don't want terrorism to fade from the forefront of public consciousness because it has been very good for them to keep Americans apprehensive. Let's remember it was a Republican administration in office on 9/11 that failed to protect us from terrorism, that it was a Republican Administration that has since 9/11 opposed the creation of a Department of Homeland Security, opposed the independent investigation of 9/11, has, despite controlling the Executive and Legislative branches of government, for three years done nothing to reform the intelligence community that failed us so spectacularly on 9/11 (to say nothing of in the build-up to the war with Iraq), has done next to nothing to protect our ports, railroads, bridges, and chemical and nuclear plants from future terrorist attacks, has no substantial leads in the investigation into the anthrax attacks, and has, despite 5000 arrests it has attributed to terrorist related activities, achieved zero convictions that have withstood appeal. Does this sound like a group of people that is serious about protecting us from terrorism. It clearly is not a priority with them. They either don't really believe that terrorism threatens us as much as they say they do, or they really can't do anything right. Or, again, both.
Clearly, what Kerry was saying is that we can not eliminate the threat of terrorist activity. As long as there are aggrieved extremists in the world the threat will persist. We don't need, though, to live our lives as if the threat of a terrorist attack needs to consume us and make us fearful during all waking hours. It's not that nuanced a point that BushCo shouldn't be able to understand it. The threat of terrorism is something that our government should take seriously, however. And the actions and record of our government in combatting that threat should be reflected by its record. The record of the Bush administration does not reflect a serious or competent approach to combatting terrorism.
In their stump speeches, Bush and Cheney like to say that Kerry and Edwards are living in a pre-9/11 world. It bears remembering that a month before 9/11 the Bush Administration received a briefing warning of increased activity by al-Qaeda and the likelihood of an attack in this country using airplanes. The Bush administration infamously responded to that briefing by doing nothing. The above list of failures to act indicates that as far as seriously combatting the threat of terrorism is concerned, the Bush Administration is in a pre-9/11 world.
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