"We have to get...where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance"

[tekisui]

''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance. As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.'' --Senator John Kerry, 2004

Senator Kerry was right then, and his words are still right now. We will never rid ourselves of terrorist acts. No matter how many countries we bomb, no matter how many screenings we are corralled through, no matter how many civil liberties we give up.

Just as we will never entirely eliminate domestic violence, child abuse, mass murders or drug use. The question is why do we respond so differently to one criminal act from these other criminal acts?

Most criminal acts do not receive round-the-clock obsession, changes in how we go about our daily lives and talk of more war. Why do we elevate these criminals to global political players? Why do we admit their power through the response of our already-strained military?

We can't live in fear of how we are going to die. Nor can we look to the federal government to keep us completely safe from select groups that are intent on harming us. Asking that of them politicizes further terrorists acts and gives them even more power.

Nor should we respond by knowingly killing more innocent people. How is one killing of an innocent person considered less bad than another? It perpetuates a cycle of violence, a never-ending game of vengeance.

No one thinks the extremists should be ignored. But, we are stronger and smarter than they are, aren't we? When we break our country, bend our liberties, sacrifice our men and women chasing them all over the country---they are winning. We can do better than that. We are better than they are.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Well said. Our obsession with "terror" and "terrorists" is all rather pathetic. K&R

[Parker CA]

2. Unfortunately too many have too much to gain about keeping terrorism in the spot light.

Great quote from Kerry though.

[blm]

10. Yep - and after he said this prominent Dems stayed sided with Bush and publicly dsagreed with Kerry

to prove 'they' were tougher on terror.

Ironically, Kerry was the lawmaker who spent years tracking down global terror networks and their funding through corrupt international banking systems while Bushes and some powerful Dem figures were in dirty deals up to their eyeballs with them throughout the 80s and 90s. By staying on Bush's side (of uninformed militarism) over Kerry's wise position those Dems assured that the media could get away with portraying Bush's militarism as the best answer to the terror issue.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "We are better than they are" -- unless we listen to the propaganda from our news sources

and believe them!

The constant reporting on terror is the lynch pin in the terrorists' plot.

Which should lead us to wonder who the main terrorists are.

[StarfarerBill]

4. Agreed and K&R. I just wish more Americans would wise up.

It's not just the fear that they have that gets me; it's the unquestioning lock-step march they're doing with the fear-mongering pundits and pols, Democratic and Republican. They've stopped thinking for themselves, and are letting the military-industrial-intelligence-political complex do it for them.

[stray cat]

7. Murderers are only a nuisance as well - but we still try to prevent them from acting

[StarfarerBill]

8. By breaking into homes and killing the people inside?

Not the best analogy.

[dkf]

5. That is pretty much where I am

But I do expect better procedures and execution than we are getting. We certainly pay enough for it

[stray cat]

6. I will obsess if the guy is trying to blow up my plane!

in that case it is more than a nuisance. Just like murderers are only a nuisance too unless the victim is you or a loved one.

[tekisui]

11. Our response is more harmful than good, though.

That is the point. We should do what we can to stop them. But, we will never stop them all, so we must ask what the balanced and measured response is.

Killing civilians (no matter how hard we try not to), sacrificing liberties and waging wars is the wrong and counterproductive response. It is the losing response, in fact.

[MH1]

9. The "John Kerry was right" file is quite large

thanks for this timely reminder on this one.

I wonder how many DUers know that Kerry wrote a book about terrorism that was published in 1997, saying among other things, that we needed to engage in international cooperation to dismantle the financial networks funding terrorist networks. (But not a word about needing to invade Iraq!)

Imagine if we actually had a functioning democracy in this country and Gore had taken the office he was elected to in 2000. (Kerry was on the veep shortlist, he would definitely have had some influence in the Gore presidency.)

[monmouth]

12. Beautifully stated...n/t