From a recent essay.
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The event also exposed a dissonance in our collective thinking, especially among the aforementioned younger set. For them, and to use their favorite word, the 21st century absolutely sucks. A twenty-one year old today was seventeen years old when we invaded Iraq, fifteen years old when September 11th happened, and fourteen years old when the Supreme Court decided to take over the duties and responsibilities of electing our public officials. Since then, they have been subjected to bogus terror scare after bogus terror scare, to lies without count about threats beyond measure, to a war seemingly without end that serves only itself.
The cynicism that breeds because of this is central to that dissonance. On the one hand, it is accepted as axiomatic that we are manufacturing terrorism in Iraq. On the other hand, it is also axiomatic that these Bush people deliberately frighten people for purely political purposes, and so the threat of terrorism itself becomes just another bag of nonsense, a fear tactic to be dismissed out of hand. Only a sucker falls for that game, and what happened in Boston last week feeds that cynical dismissal.
These two ideas, while correct on their own, cannot exist together in the same space.
If we are manufacturing terrorism, then one of these days, the warning will be real. It is one of the most searing crimes committed by Bush and his ilk - and yes, to my mind, it is a crime - that so many people are motivated to stand against this war because it is dangerous for us all, but at the same time scoff at one of the most dangerous potential consequences of the war. Why should someone who graduated from high school in this climate, who has begun to come of age as the walls of the castle crumble, who has been subjected to media-driven terror and state-sponsored murder, believe anything they are told?
I was reminded of the years I spent living in San Francisco. The threat of an earthquake was ever-present, but in no way dominated the attention of the citizenry. The threat occupied a corner of your mind; if it happened, you wouldn't be surprised, but if you walked around worried about it every second of the day, you'd go mad. So you didn't worry about it, but you always breathed a little easier once you drove off the Bay Bridge. It was what it was.
Today, it is what it is. Terrorism exists, and the threat of it has been made all the more pressing by the actions of this government. I thought I was watching the consequences of their activities arrive here last week, and was shaken by it. It was, to me, a dry run for the worst day ever. In the end, however, the worst part came later. It came when I heard people making fun of the threat.
Actions have consequences. What the Bush administration is doing in Iraq makes us far less safe, both over there and over here. The fact that they have so abused the sensibilities of the populace with their fear-mongering does not change this fact. If this situation in Iraq is allowed to burn on, or if we are foolish enough to attack Iran, the warnings we went through last week may well become commonplace all across the country.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020807R.shtml
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