Fear

[Inverted Things]

I just had an interesting thought: This election will show whether a presidential candidate can be elected on the basis of fear (fear of terrorism or other attacks). I’m sorry to offend those on the board who support George W. Bush, but I’ve some thoughts to back this up.

Now, the people on this board tend to be well-informed enough to be voting for Bush because of his positions/ideology. This is intended to be an analysis of swing voters, the occasionally not-so-informed people who actually decide the elections.

The Republicans are looking into what it would take to postpone the November election in the event that a terrorist attack happens between now and Election Day. I have to ask why? After all, this country had a presidential election during the Civil War.

In order to induce fear, the Bush Administration started a terrorist color code system to measure the danger of a terrorist attack (again, sorry if this is offensive, but I can’t see any other way to view it).

The Bush Administration also used fear to convince the masses to go into Iraq. (I’m NOT saying that ousting Saddam was unjustified, although I believe it was). The methods by which Bush and Company sold the war to the public included
1.   WMDs. I have a difficult time believing our intelligence was so far wrong here, while the UN’s was right on the money
2.   Ties to terrorism (specifically Al Queda). Osama Bin Laden and Saddam never much cared for each other.
3.   Attempt to get nuclear weapons. Based on a fraudulent intelligence report.
Notice that each of these methods amount to fear mongering.

I’m looking forward to Bush’s speech at the RNC to see if he decides to continue campaigning on fear, or if he goes for a more optimistic approach.

[Inverted Things]

You'd be a fool to dismiss terrorism as just a "minor" threat.

Um, terrorism *is* a minor threat. I'm not saying we should do nothing about it, but I can't help but think we're going about it the wrong way.

There is a fundamental difference between declaring war on Japan in 1941 and war on terrorism in 2001. In WWII, we knew just where our enemies were. Here we do not. In WWII we were fighting a centralized power, and when they surrendered, the war was over. The idea of terrorism surrendering is nuts, since terrorism is a concept, not a country.

So, how are we going to know when this war is over? Will it ever be over? If not, is our society going to live in a permanent state of war?