"Security Theatre"-Conservatives Dont Give A Shit About Our Safety & Are Promoting al Qaeda's Agenda

[kpete]

Promoting al Qaeda's Agenda
by BarbinMD
Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 05:50:05 PM PST

Matt Duss at The Wonk Room asks an excellent question: why are conservatives so committed to promoting al Qaeda's "success"?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/5/822267/-Promoting-al-Qaedas-Agenda

Why Are Conservatives So Committed To Promoting Al Qaeda’s ‘Success’?

As I noted yesterday, it is true that one of the goals of terrorism is to elicit a wild over-reaction from the target government, resulting in greater publicity and a larger pool of potential recruits for the terrorists’ cause, and so any response has to be balanced against that. But the idea that "the strategic goals of al Qaeda" are better advanced by more security theater at American airports than they were by, say, inducing the United States to invade and occupy two Muslim countries and engage in a global campaign of kidnapping and torture, is just ridiculous on its face.

But this is largely beside the point, because conservatives like Kristol, Hume, and Doan aren’t genuinely (or at least primarily) interested in analyzing threats and policies to deal with them, they’re interested in promoting a specific, and politically advantageous, narrative about the nature of those threats. And apparently, the possibility of those threats serving as Al Qaeda propaganda is a price they’re willing to pay in order to achieve that political advantage.

Duss also cites an expert on Middle East media, who points out that:

... the exaggeration of al-Qaeda’s role works directly and devastatingly against American goals ... It magnifies al-Qaeda’s perceived power, strengthening its own media campaign and feeding its most powerful propaganda instrument...

more:
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/01/05/why-are-conservatives-so-committed-to-promoting-al-qaedas-success/