Terrorized by the media-If Anything, Failed Bombing Shows Us How LITTLE We Need To Fear al-Queda

[kpete]

Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010 20:20 EST
Terrorized by the media
Spare us the sky-is-falling hysteria. If anything, the failed bombing shows how little we need to fear al-Qaida
By Gene Lyons
AP/Charles Dharapak

............

...... we could all do without the sky-is-falling hysteria. If anything, Abdulmutallab's failed atrocity attempt demonstrates, once again, how little America as a nation actually has to fear from al-Qaida. Everyone reading this column is far more likely to die in an automobile accident or an influenza epidemic than at a terrorist's hands.

Islamic extremists can't invade the United States or cripple its armed forces, can't heavily damage the nation's infrastructure or productive capacity, can't impair the nation's functioning nor undermine its government. All they're capable of -- and the Flight 253 episode shows them not terribly good at that -- are mass murder atrocities, the purpose of which is to terrify Americans into doing stupid things that sap our morale and damage ourselves.

Things like invading Iraq, resorting to using torture, abandoning the rule of law and demanding authoritarian solutions that provide a false sense of security to people quivering with media-amplified fear. Such as Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney's demand on (where else?) Fox News that all Muslim men between ages 18 and 28 be strip-searched before boarding airplanes. Only the cravenly politically correct, he thinks, could object.

.....................

But the real telltale headline appeared in the Washington Post on Dec. 30: "Republicans see political opportunity in Obama response to failed airplane bomb." Dick Cheney emerged from his bunker to claim it's all the president's fault. "We are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe," he said. "Why doesn't he want to admit we're at war? It doesn't fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office."

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more:
http://salon.com/news/media_criticism/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/01/06/failed_terror_plot

[leftstreet]

1. I'm afraid the al-Queda Navy will launch its battleships our way

TERRA!!!!!!!

K&R

[Jamastiene]

2. OH NOES1!!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE...

Let's move our battleships to C4 C5 & C6. That way they won't know where to strike. D'oh!

:P

[Jamastiene]

3. The Guardian had an article about how we are basically being

terrorized by all these mauve/purple/bright neon 80s green/all those other idiotic colors in the chart alerts and crap the MSM keeps spewing.

Hell, if MSM would get the hell out of there (it's not like they are doing any real reporting over there, alt news orgs are doing all that work) maybe they wouldn't be so panicky. They are getting on my nerves at this point.

I wonder if any of the talking heads ever get tired of hearing their own voices. I haven't watched Tweety in 6 years now and I can still hear echoes (bad bad memories) of his obnoxious voice to this day sometimes. I hate that echo memory thing I have going on. It makes it impossible to forget Tweety/O'Liarly/Coulter/Hannity/and all those other fucking assholes exist.

I don't know how I got on the subject of Tweety, but while I'm here: I HATE TWEETY!

K&R and back to your regularly scheduled programming.
:evilgrin:

[ProudObamanaut]

4. I hate to say it....

but this is true. There hasn't been a single attack on US soil since 9/11 (excluding embassies and other foreign outposts of course). So why are we still worried about "terrorism"? Seems like we could save more lives by focusing our efforts on feeding the poor starving children of the world, educating teens about safe driving, industrializing other nations etc etc...

[gratuitous]

5. But if we're not afraid . . .

The Republicans would have to come up with some, you know, ideas and programs and stuff.

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Who knew that America could be destroyed by guys with box cutters and explosive underwear?

I watched the first few minutes of ABC national news tonight. It was a surreal experience as I do not watch much TV and rarely do I watch network news. Tonight, the first three stories were about the underwear bomber, airport safety, body scans and NJ TSA cameras failing. They used at least five different reporters to cover the terrorism stories. There was a commercial break and when they came back, they did a story about Democrats retiring and then right back to another terrorism story. I almost expected the screen to simply start flashing BE AFRAID over and over again.

[grahamhgreen]

7. Amen! Terrorized by a guy who burned his own penis. Pathetic. Give me liberty or death.

[TexasObserver]

8. Recommend

[sabrina 1]

9. Finally, someone with some intelligence.

The media is a disgrace, as if we didn't know that already. The real threat to Americans security, assuming that means to their lives, are the numbers of people dying from lack of health care every day. Since 9/11 approximately 400,000 Americans have died because their government has failed to adequately protect them.

The men who failed to protect America against terrorism are all over the propaganda machine these days. With zero sense of irony on their own part or the seriously mentally challenged individuals who deliver the 'news' to America, they are there to advise this president on 'National Security.'

Cheney, who presided over the worst terror attack in US history and who helped lose a US city to a hurricane for which there were at least two full days of warnings.

Bremer, the man who lost billions of dollars in Iraq and prompted the beginning of the most deadly uprisings there resulting in countless fatalities of Iraqis and our own troops.

Chertoff, who did not lift a finger to save the lives of Americans and presumably twiddled his thumbs as thousands drowned and the world watched on television.

Giuliani, who insisted for years that NYC was the safest city in the world, ignored the threat of terrorism and foolishly built his command center in the middle of the world's biggest terrorist target. Stunned and wandering aimlessly around NYC that fateful day, what we call a 'news media' mistook his dazed, terrified demeanor for heroism.

All these men, failures of catastrophic proportions in the area of national security, have had the audacity to criticize the President and put themselves forward as experts on the subject. All have a conflict of interest, all stand to gain financially from terror, and I have no qualms at all about saying that they WANT another terror attack as not one of them has the humanity to care one bit about the lives of other human beings. And all promoted violating International and Domestic laws urging the use of torture and secret trials.

It's hard to top this crew when it comes to shameful behavior, but Larry King, Anderson Cooper, Candy Crowley et al managed to do it. Not once did one of these 'news' people challenge a single one of these liars. Tonight, with Giuliani on his favorite topic, 9/11!! Terror!! 9/11!! Did I say 9/11! was allowed to ramble on about a subject that if he had any human decency he would never mention again, considering what he let happen to NYC. He was the sole guest with Larry King who did nothing to stop his outrageous, self-promoting rantings and attacks on the President.

All slammed President Obama, especially Giuliani. I hope Obama is learning a lesson from this assault from the far right wackos who ran this country into the ground. I hope he understands that not prosecuting war criminals has very serious consequences, not just for him but for all of us.

Shame on our Media, but that's what you get when Corporations run the country. It is a full-fledged propaganda machine at this point, and the OP is absolutely on target regarding the utter stupidity of what has been going on over an incompetent fool who failed to harm anyone but himself.