Wednesday, February 03, 2010

It's Hard To Believe...

...we've gone nearly three whole years without a terror attack warning:

WASHINGTON—The U.S.'s top intelligence officials said Tuesday that an attempted al Qaeda attack on the U.S. in the next three to six months was "certain."

An official also said the Nigerian who allegedly attempted to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day was again cooperating with federal investigators. Republicans have accused the administration of squandering a chance to gain valuable intelligence from the suspect by using the civilian court system to charge him, instead of declaring him an enemy combatant and subjecting him to more interrogation.

Not coincidentally, the faux warnings under Bush stopped the minute Traitor Karl Rove left the White House. But I digress...
 
We're going to have to live with the fact that terror threats will always be with us. Not to the extent they are with Israel, or India or Pakistan, or any other nation not in this hemisphere (and some that are). As our infrastructure ages and is replaced, new security measures will be build-ins to the new facilities, and we'll stop noticing much of that legacy of Al Qaeda.
 
For now, tho, we'll need to be reminded every so often of the dangers we face. The Christmas Day bomber was one abrupt reminder, also an abrupt reminder that Al Qaeda has always liked to test new Presidents when they first take office, and wouldn't you know it, the Obama administration passed the test first time out.
 
Too, we'll have to remain vigilant against copycat organizations mimicking Al Qaeda's tactics. Fortunately, we don't seem to have pissed anyone else off lately, and getting rid of Bush and the GOP hegemonic moron class has settled the feathers that were ruffled. Things do change, though, and a bad world economy makes it more likely that new groups will pop up, angry at and jealous of America, Americans, and the relative good life we lead.
 
Maybe once China takes over the top spot as the most powerful economy on the planet (right now, they sit number three), and the oppression of Uighurs takes more of the spotlight in the radical Muslim world, we can breathe a little easier. Maybe.
 
Or maybe through some bizarre eddy of political evolution, Sarah Palin is elected in 2016, and the flame ignites once more against us.
 
Look, people were willing to let Americans have a pass on the first Bush election. They even gave us a pass on his re-election. They cheered the election of Barack Obama, but the overseas opinion of the American people's generosity and selflessness took a hit over the previous eight years.
 
And now, with the debate over helping Haiti, and the recent Supreme Court decision that basically allows political candidates to become sponsored like NASCAR drivers, Americans are looking pretty idiotic. We won't get the same outpouring of love and sympathy on the next attack, when that happens.
 
Just so you're prepared for the reaction. It's going to feel ugly, but it will be deserved.