Terror, Revenge, And Where To Go From Here
by Michael LeStrange

We have met the enemy and he is us
    - Pogo

Death to all fanatics
    - Unknown

I've been doing my own informal poll and observing my friends and acquaintance's reactions to the September 11, 2001 atrocity.  I didn't listen to the president's speech, but I have heard and read the various analysis of it in the press - radio, television, newspaper, magazine, internet.

My friends make up a very varied group, ranging from the pretty poor to the pretty rich.  My acquaintance's range from the working poor to the incredibly rich.  So I have a reasonably far and reasonably statistically significant sampling range in economic terms.

Politically, there are all extremes in this group - far left anarchists to G. Gordon Liddy types.  Most of them, not surprisingly, are grouped in the middle.

My genetic parents are fairly fundamental Christians - i.e. they don't really classify themselves with major Christian sects.  My brother works for Focus On The Family.

I'm considered to be the black sheep of the family.

The stark fist of removal

And I've got to give this whole experience a big thumbs down.

On the one hand, there is the sheer shock and complete loathing for this act of terror.  Anyone who's sympathizes with this action is a monster.

On the other hand, we're rushing headlong into setting up a police state.  We're out for blood and looking for a fight.

I just have to ask...

Do we really want to do this?

One of my more intelligent friends is completely out for blood.  He thinks these people should be killed.

I didn't want to press the point, but I had the distinct feeling that he would gladly carpet bomb Afghanistan if he thought it would have a serious chance of killing those responsible.

I had the distinct impression that I could well be considered "collateral damage" if I tried to get in his way.

I just have to ask.  What ever happened to the sixth commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill"?

I keep hearing that the bible is literal, and surely nothing could be more literal than the 10 commandments, and both Moslems and Christians incorporate the old testament into their religious beliefs.

But they're out for blood.

My opinion is that those responsible need to be brought to justice.  Not killed by a commando raid.  Not killed with a Tomahawk missile.

The claim is that we're at war.  I don't agree.

What we have done is threaten any country which doesn't turn over our suspected terrorists, or gives them aid, or supported them in the September 11, 2001 atrocity.

This could be a lot of countries.

Certainly, we'd be very foolish to declare war on all of them.

But we need an enemy.  They are very well hidden.  So now we have a "Hidden Enemy".

And to fight a hidden enemy, we apparently need to set up a police state.

Within days of the terrorist's atrocity, the Senate had passed a bill broadly increasing the FBI's ability to listen in on communication between private individuals.

And the administration wasn't satisfied and came back with more requests for expanded capabilities.

The expansion of these powers has been long sought, and the suicide bombings have basically thrown the flood gates open.

Congress Is Now A Candy Store

In the wake of the tragedy, Senators are falling over themselves to increase the surveillance capabilities of the FBI and other agencies.  In the name of security, we sell out our freedoms and privacy.

As long as we're safe, we're apparently willing to sell ourselves out.

After all, if you don't have anything to hide you don't have anything to fear, right?

Which is all well and good.  It's kinda weird for me to hear from someone that they can't trust government at all in one breath and then hand them the capability of spying on all their citizens in the next breath.

Doesn't this strike anyone else as odd?

Information, as everyone is well aware, is a most powerful weapon.  Personal information can damage someone even if they aren't embarrassed by it, or even if the information doesn't reveal any illegal activities.

Your credit card number is your personal information.  Would you mind giving me that, as well as your social security number, birth date and mother's maiden name?

Didn't think you would.

But apparently we're going to have to trust the world's governments with this information.  Police, FBI and god only knows what other agencies will apparently have pretty broad access to our personal information.

And we can't even lock it up.  The push for back doors into encryption products is stronger than ever.  Without getting too technical, this means that every electronic lock has to be able to be opened by a key the government owns.

Right now, you pretty much have to assume that the FBI's Carnivore email snoop is installed on every major ISP.  This means that your email is most likely already being read by those in the government.  If your ISP is AOL or Microsoft, or if you have an email account with Yahoo or Hotmail, your email is definitely being sifted through by Carnivore.

And it didn't take any new laws to do this.  They just asked your ISP if they could install Carnivore, and they of course said yes.

I mean, how could they refuse?

Everyone hates terrorists, after all.

We've seen this kind of thing played out before.  The age of McCarthyism was better left in the past.  Apparently most of the population of the United States - or at least the vast majority of their representatives - is feeling nostalgic for the old witch hunts of the days of the Red Threat.

Oh well.  Scratch the surface, and we're all ready to sell out our neighbors because we're simply terrified out of our wits and will do just about anything to remain safe.

Doesn't that mean the terrorists won?

Our economy is in the toilet.  Unfortunately, so are the economies of most of the rest of the world.  Looks like we're in a global recession, and the only thing remaining is just it's pronouncement 6 months from now.

Everyone is nervous, people are pessimistic.

But there are some reasons for hope.

America is a truly diverse population.  Unlike the 50's, there are a lot more than just white European Caucasians making up the citizenry of these United States.  Arabs make up a significant portion of the population.  With this kind of diversity, it is hard to use ethnicity as fuel to our righteous indignation.

Many of these new American citizens have fresh memories of the police states that they fled, thinking that the U.S.A. was indeed the land of the free, and the home of opportunity.  With these memories fresh in their cultural memory, they add healthy skepticism against the headlong rush into a police state to combat terrorism.

As well as a very diverse viewpoint on the situation.  Being recent immigrants and children of recent immigrants, they have a unique perspective on how the U.S.A. is viewed in other parts of the globe.  They haven't been completely brainwashed yet.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the U.S. after all.  Something that terrifies the Christians, I can tell you.

Hours after Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson declared that the atrocity was brought down on us by the ACLU, secular humanists and the mere existence of gays and lesbians, even their right wing supporters were appalled.

And the outpouring of support for those directly affected in New York city has been amazing.  People helping out, giving anything they can, working day in and day out to do whatever they can to recover, rescue and help.  It's amazing to see.

Finally we have seen Israel and Palestine finally appearing to get serious about peace.  At least for the moment.  We can just never be sure with those two warring factions.  But as of this writing, the truce is still holding.

And thank god Colin Powell seems to be running things.  I've always had a lot of respect for the man, and I hope its justified.  He's a level head with a balanced view of the complexities of the situation.  As the tragedy unfolded, he has kept consistent pressure on both parties to use this tragedy as an opportunity for peace.

Maybe some roses of peace can grow from the ashes of the World Trade Center.

The world seems pretty much united against terrorism, for once.  And although this same united front is also pushing for vast, global, multi-country surveillance capabilities, at least there is broad recognition that if a country "hosts" terrorists, they are considered terrorists too.

I've actually read articles in major media about how Usama Bin Laden was a CIA operative and that the Taliban was basically installed as the government of Afghanistan by the United States.

Most of those whom I've talked to about this universally agree that we're basically screwing ourselves over by continuing to do these kind of things.

It could be that we make incremental gains in kinder, gentler, foreign policy.  But I still think this is doubtful.

But in general, the terrorists seem to have won.  Not only in creating terror, but severely weakening an economy that was already shaky.

They've also managed to drive the fascists out of the wood work, and they are quickly taking away our civil rights - legally, of course.

Let's hope that cooler minds prevail.

But I'm not counting on it.