Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!
This morning, President Bush described the foiling of a terrorist plot to fly a plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles. South-east Asian men, recruited by the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, would have used shoe-bombs to get into the cockpit and take control of the plane, and fly it into the tower.
Why hasn't there been an increase in the color-coded terror alert status?! Omigawd, it's happening all over again! We're under attack!
Well, no. Not so much.
The plot was foiled in 2002. It is now, you may recall, 2006.
The mastermind behind the plot was captured in 2003. It is now, you may recall, 2006.
The reason for giving us details about this plot this morning? You tell me.
Do you suppose that he chose this week, of all the weeks since the plot was foiled, because this was the week that started with his Attorney General testifying before some very angry Senators about domestic spying? Now, if it was the attempt by a serious man to add to a legitimate debate about the need for his authorization of the wiretapping of Americans, he would have expained how doing such wiretapping helped foil this plot. He didn't.
Rather, the key point of his speech seemed to be:
This is a nation that's seen frequent color-coded alerts somehow stop as soon as the administration was re-elected. This is a nation that let its fear of burning towers be used to support lies, and pointlessly invade another country, straining its military and revealing embarassing incompetence in supplying the troops. This is a nation that saw the still-ongoing debacle of Katrina in New Orleans. This is a nation now able to admit that perhaps these guys in Washington don't really know what they're doing.
It seems clear that the response Karl Rove is hoping for from this morning's speech is renewed fear, and being able to use the "rally 'round the President" reflex for his own ends. But I have hope that we have not only has a post-9/11 mind-set, but a post-Katrina one. Once the shocking mental image of a plane flying into an LA tower is replaced by the realization that he's talking about 2002,, I think more than a few people will be left asking "So what have you done for me lately?"
Why hasn't there been an increase in the color-coded terror alert status?! Omigawd, it's happening all over again! We're under attack!
Well, no. Not so much.
The plot was foiled in 2002. It is now, you may recall, 2006.
The mastermind behind the plot was captured in 2003. It is now, you may recall, 2006.
The reason for giving us details about this plot this morning? You tell me.
Do you suppose that he chose this week, of all the weeks since the plot was foiled, because this was the week that started with his Attorney General testifying before some very angry Senators about domestic spying? Now, if it was the attempt by a serious man to add to a legitimate debate about the need for his authorization of the wiretapping of Americans, he would have expained how doing such wiretapping helped foil this plot. He didn't.
Rather, the key point of his speech seemed to be:
We cannot let the fact that America hasn't been attacked in 4 1/2 years since September the 11th lull us into the illusion that the threats to our nation have disappeared. They have not.This has been a powerful message for the President, which is why he keeps coming back to it. But, as the Boy Who Cried Wolf discovered, repeated calls of alarm gradually lose effectiveness. America hadn't been attacked in the 4 1/2 years before 9/11 either, when relatively no anti-terrorist activity was being done.
This is a nation that's seen frequent color-coded alerts somehow stop as soon as the administration was re-elected. This is a nation that let its fear of burning towers be used to support lies, and pointlessly invade another country, straining its military and revealing embarassing incompetence in supplying the troops. This is a nation that saw the still-ongoing debacle of Katrina in New Orleans. This is a nation now able to admit that perhaps these guys in Washington don't really know what they're doing.
It seems clear that the response Karl Rove is hoping for from this morning's speech is renewed fear, and being able to use the "rally 'round the President" reflex for his own ends. But I have hope that we have not only has a post-9/11 mind-set, but a post-Katrina one. Once the shocking mental image of a plane flying into an LA tower is replaced by the realization that he's talking about 2002,, I think more than a few people will be left asking "So what have you done for me lately?"
posted by Paul at 8:40 AM |
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