gonzo liberal's Left Hook

[ Tuesday, December 23, 2003 ]

 

I gotta say it.
'Let it all hang out.
'Get it off my chest.

This terror alert thing?
"Increased chatter" the highest seen since before the 9-11 attacks?
With Christmas, New Years, SuperBowl right around the corner?

I gotta say it.
I'm nervous.
Quite nervous.
Not quite freaked.
Nowhere near wet-my-pants panic.
But nervous.

Since the 9-11 attacks, we've attacked Afghanistan, then Iraq. On the surface, it would seem we've succeeded in drawing all the world's terrorists into a nice little circle in Iraq and surrounding countries, thus making the rest of the world safer. I doubt this conclusion. I think, instead, we've set ourselves up to be hit again, at home, where "the (monolithic) terrorists" have previously succeeded. This is not to imply that our recent actions since Bush came to office have made the threat worse. The subject on the affect of our actions is still open. The administration and government are quite likely actually doing all they can to control what they can.

No, I'm of the faction that believe this "war" has been ongoing for decades, and that we in the west are merely reaping in spades what we have sown over the years in the entire arab world. Our "enemy" has resisted the politics of nationhood thrust upon them at the close of the colonial era, clinging instead to what has made them last centuries, their tribal and clan identities.

That this "enemy" is bent on striking at the US again should be a broad assumption. Sooner or later, they're likely to slip something through and whack us again.

And I'm nervous, today, right now.

gonzoliberal [6:37 PM]