In the midst of the Detroit terrorism investigation surrounding the Nigerian national who attempted unsuccessfully to blow up a Northwest jet on Christmas Day, the Republican party is going negative and blaming the whole incident on the Obama Administration.
President Obama has taken responsibility for the lack of intelligence information being put together to prevent this fortunately botched attempt at bringing down an American plane. This is more than the Bush Presidency was willing to do after September 11.
And yet, Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, running for governor in that state next year, has decided to milk the issue for all it is worth as a means to raise campaign funds.
Also, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, thought to be planning a presidential run in 2012, and having called earlier for the health care reform plan to be Obama’s “Waterloo”, is also using the issue against the administration, even though the whole system of homeland security was organized under President Bush in 2003.
These are cheap shots being utilized for political gain, just days after the crisis occurred. And the trend is toward profiling everyone who is of Middle Eastern or African or Asian heritage, because there have been Al Qaeda terrorists in this country and overseas of all these ethnic origins.
I guess the answer is put everyone in this country who is of any minority group–including Latin America too–on the profiling list, and therefore, limit or refuse air passage to about 40 percent of the American population, and most of the world’s six billion plus population!
But then again, one of the spokesmen for Al Qaeda is a white Anglo, and I seem to remember that we have domestic terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh in the past, the various militia group activists, the Ku Klux Klan, and just maybe some of the “Tea Party/Freedom Works” people who, at various rallies, have sounded ready for violent revolution and bloodshed in their rhetoric.
So maybe we should shut down all air travel altogether! But wait, that would be an economic disaster, and would be conceding victory to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations!
In other words, we cannot give in to the terrorists, but can also not profile people based on their ethnicity, as a terrorist can be of any background or nationality. What we can do is better our intelligence gathering, connect the dots better, and all be watchful and alert, and also do a lot of praying.
But ultimately, there is this fact. The chances of anyone being a victim of a terrorist attack are far less than being hit by lightning! We cannot allow ourselves to be taken “hostage” and become hysterical. But the Republican party, famous for McCarthyism in the past, is now disgracing our political discourse by utilizing a similar hysteria and panic against the threat of terrorism! Shame on them! 🙁