More happy news, this time
More happy news, this time from Our Man Rumsfeld. Again, nothing that we didn't already know. This was followed up twenty minutes ago by more finger-pointing in Iran's direction.
Now, I've invested quite a bit of effort on these pages in defense of Bush's pre-9/11 administrative record with regard to national security. It should be remembered, however, that a record on paper is just that. It is the action that counts, and lately I've been wondering, "Where's my war?" In pre-television WWII days, there were posters everywhere, brochures about how to recognize Jap subs off of American coastlines, newsreels From The Front with every feature, radio broadcasts by our trusted media voices. I myself have a book-mark sized alert from the National Forestry Servive warning that "Forest Fires Help The Enemy" by producing smoke that could be used as cover by said Jap subs. Probably nonsense, but such ephemera kept the public on its toes and reminded them about what was going on far overseas.
What've we got today? A poorly-publicized color-coded national alert system and a political leadership that's scrambling to make a scandal out of a memo. Where are the posters in our cities' subways? HOW TO RECOGNIZE A SUICIDE BOMBER: Look for the bulky jacket...the nervous jitters...the sweats...muttering of prayers...visible wires at the wrists or on the hands... WATCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS. Goddamn but this PC civil-rights crap is crippling us. Where are the posters telling people who to call if they're suddenly living next to three young Middle-Eastern students who rent a one bedroom apartment month-to-month and have no furniture? Are we going to let the right of people to behave suspiciously negate proper intelligence gathering?
Where are the daily briefings on the evening news about what our government is doing? Even if all it's doing is maintaining readiness, for God's sake don't leave it to the media to decide what the public needs to hear. President Bush should be on the television every Sunday for fifteen minutes in prime time telling us exactly what's what.
This week, all we've heard is the FBI telling us to prepare for suicide bombs, the Secretary of Defense telling us to prepare for the use of weapons of mass destruction, and Senators telling us that extremists are smuggling themsleves into the country in ill-secured container ships. Where the hell are the people telling us what they're doing to stop it, how the citizenry can help, and whether or not we need to enlist? We're at war here, people, and the enemy is within our borders. I don't give a shit that Attack of the Clones hasn't beat Spider-Man's gross yet. I really, really don't. Yet that's what seems to be at the forefront of the American media consciousness.
I'm spoiling for a fight. Kicking out the Taliban was great and all, but I want blood and guts and gore and veins in my teeth, man! I want every would-be terrorist to know without a doubt that Allah will not save the population of his town, his city, his nation, if he raises a hand against us on our own soil. I want pictures of vast plains of burnt desert littered with the husked remains of enemy soldiers and the smoking wreckage of a thousand tanks. I want the State Ass of every terrorist sponsor to be so utterly and thoroughly kicked that an entire generation will instantly lose the false hope presented by religious extremism.
Where's my war?
