Rice says U.S. safer since Sept. 11 attacks
WASHINGTON — The United States is safer now than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks, but must not relent in fighting terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today. “I think it’s clear that we are safe — safer — but not really yet safe,” Rice said.
Well, there’s an election coming up, so it makes sense that members of the Bush Administration are playing up what they see as their accomplishments. And who can argue with someone making nebulous, difficult to subatantiate claims about how they’ve dealt with a threat that largely exists only conceptually. It’s not that terrorism doesn’t present a legitimate threat, but you could drive yourself nuts trying to protect this country against every conceivable threat we face. So, in typical fashion, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader and his apologists are trying to convince the American sheeple that they’re safer now than…well, than when, really? What yardstick are they using to make this judgement, and how can Condoleeza Rice, or anyone else, argue with a straight face that we’re safer? Should the fact that we haven’t been attacked since 9.11 serve as prima facie evidence of increased safety and security? Or is this Administration making an argument they cannot support but know people will believe if they repeat it often enough?
How anyone- Republican or Democrat- can argue that we are safer defies logic and understanding. Were we safer prior to 9.11? Were we less safe after 9.11? Who knows? Those with access to information and intelligence may have more with which to formulate a decision than you and I, but does their claim of increased safety and security represent reality…or merely the desire and need to support Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader, thereby protecting their own job and their own credibility?
For Rice to claim that we are safer is on it’s face absurd. Safer than when? Were she to look at things objectively, she’d be willing to admit that we weren’t safe prior to 9.11, it’s just that we received a major wake-up call on that terrible day. We are no more or less safe no than were on 9.11 or prior to 9.11. How can Rice- or anyone- say with any certainty that we are safer today? When you look around, we may perhaps be more aware of the risks we face, but are we safer? How do we know? How do we quantify safety? How do we measure it? And are we truly talking about safety…or merely self-delusion?
WE DESERVE BETTER.
