THE POLITICS OF FEAR: "This administration has never hesitated to play on fear for political gain."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT editorial: The Politics of Fear
Published: July 18, 2007

It had to happen. President Bush’s bungling of the war in Iraq has been the talk of the summer. On Capitol Hill, some of the more reliable Republicans are writing proposals to force Mr. Bush to change course. A showdown vote is looming in the Senate.

Enter, stage right, the fear of terrorism.

Yesterday, the director of national intelligence released a report with the politically helpful title of “The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” and Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, held a news conference to trumpet its findings. The message, as always: Be very afraid. And don’t question the president....

If the report is given an honest reading, it is a powerful rebuke to Mr. Bush’s approach to the war on terror. It vindicates those who say that the Iraq war is a distraction from the real fight against terrorism — a fight that is not going at all well.

The administration, however, seized on the report and, through bald political timing, tried to use it to dampen calls for an end to Mr. Bush’s catastrophic war....

***

The White House denied that the report was timed to the Senate debate. But the administration controls the timing of such releases and the truth is that fear of terrorism is the only shard remaining of Mr. Bush’s justification for invading Iraq.

This administration has never hesitated to play on fear for political gain, starting with the first homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, and his Popsicle-coded threat charts. It is a breathtakingly cynical ploy, but in the past it has worked to cow Democrats into silence, if not always submission, and herd Republicans back onto the party line....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/opinion/18wed1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

ON EDIT: I'm wondering if the opinion expressed in this editorial could have influenced the NY Times's unusual lead headline on the new Intelligence Estimate story: "Bush Aides See Failure in Fight With Al Qaeda in Pakistan." All of the other papers headlined the story in terms of increased threat to what the Bush administration calls our "Homeland."

[Mythsaje]

1. As a shock treatment

I think it's down to a trickle charge now, equivilent to a static jolt from rubbing the feet against a carpet for a few minutes. It stings a little, but it'll never jump start the Fear Machine.