I'm not worried about Al Qaeda.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Oh, I don't dismiss them. Anybody who will fly 3 planes into the WTC has to be on the scope. However, we have tied ourselves down with a lot of our military in one part of the globe while who knows what could break loose?

After 9/11 people went batshit crazy. It scared everybody so badly that they would and did do anything that they thought might forestall something like this again. They threw reason and logic out the window, and they listened to that man behind the curtain.

Bush could have tamped down some of the hysteria without minimizing what happened or what needed to be done. However, 9/11 was the opportunity that would not be missed. Up went the fear with claims of WMDs. Up it went with the threat level colors. (Did we ever get down to blue or green?) Up, up, up until it seemed as if every city would be attacked by hoards from the Middle East. And your little dog too.........

Too many people never stopped to really give the President the eye and actually LISTEN to what he was saying. Congress failed by passing onerous bills that functionally replaced parts of the Constitution. Nary enough of a peep. People who did object were called unpatriotic and given tinfoil hats. Just like that, we went from a horrible terrorist act by an outside group to the greatest subversion of the American system of government by insiders.

I look around from my bunker in SC, and I sure don't see Al Qaeda. Don't see them on the teevee either. I see Teapotters, Jim DeMint, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and more loons in Congress than I can count. I read the emails from the SPLC and realize that the militias I know are growing here are also expanding across the nation. The President is openly threatened and delegitimized every minute.

The people in Congress who know better and should be calling the loons out are joining in. They think they are cynically using them for their own ends. Guess what McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and all the rest of you spineless twits? You can't control a mob. Once they get going they are just as likely to take you down as anybody else.

I know there are a great many people in the US who don't support the idiocy being promulgated. However, when will they step up and out and demand that they be heard and start drowning out the hate. They appear to be paralyzed by the economic situation or whatever and aren't a cohesive group. They are an amorphous majority, but what will they do if the loons really start to move?

Then there are the truly scary people we don't know about. They are the quiet ones who are up to no good just like Timothy McVeigh was. I can find the screamers, and keep them in sight. I don't know who else is out there possibly backed by someone, and these quiet people could be the deadliest of all.

I'll worry about Al Qaeda at some point I guess. I'm too busy looking right over the horizon at what is in our own backyard. Not so easy to point out the 'different' ones inside our borders.

I'll take my tinfoil chapeau and watch quietly. There are enough people watching for Osama Bin Ladin. I'm looking for someone with an American name.

[HopeHoops]

1. All the Al Qaeda guys are down at the 7-11 with Elvis and Jesus.

I see them all the time.

[Danmel]

2. I live in ny

Maybe in SC you're not scared of al-Qaeda, but I am concerned. I wouldn't say scared, but we are the target, not you.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. I don't blame you.

I don't think they can be ignored, but are we truly watching all that we should be. It is only natural to fear another terrorist attack where you are.

However, don't ever forget what is behind you and not coming from abroad. That is what I can see from where I am.

[dgibby]

12. You're wrong. Charleston, SC is one of the largest container ports in the US.

In addition, we are home to the military brig that housed some of the most infamous enemy combatants. The AF base here houses the military airlift command, the planes that fly cargo, troops, etc, to the wars. We have a Navy base here that could get you shot dead in a New York minute if you tried to breach it.

Forty-five minutes down the road, we have 2 Marine Corps bases, Paris Island and the Marine Corps Air Station.

Up state, we have an Army Base and a nuclear power plant.

The fact that we haven't been hit yet doesn't mean squat.

What happened to NY and DC on 9/11 was terrible, but you're not the only target in the country.

Having said that, I agree with Grits. The enemy within worries me much more than any foreign terrorist group.

[Danmel]

14. I don't think the original poster is charleston

And I agree with you that port security is a weak link. I don't think we should be scared, I think we should be intelligent about the way we address very real threats to our security and that's not by jumping at our own shadows or by pretending that there is no problem at all.

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. I'm close enough to Charleston.

We are jumping at shadows still. Every suspect act no matter how small is immediately linked to terrorists by a lot of people. When they find out that it's not, there is an exhalation of relief. The damage caused is just as real, but the fear factor isn't the same.

When I look at the collection of loons gathering, I try to see who the real problem might be. If you doubt me about the threat from within, check out the SPLC. They have monitored hate groups for years, and probably try to find anybody else they can.

I'm not pretending there is no outside problem. 9/11 took care of that complacency. However, that traumatic event has so focused peoples' minds on a threat from one group and region, that practically all else is ignored. BTW I've been bitching about the lack of attention to our home grown groups for years.

There has to be awareness on both sides. I think it's harder to make people see an inside threat because the instigators aren't that obvious if they shut their mouths. There is also a resistance to believing that people here would harm us. Timothy McVeigh is just a faded memory for too many people. I know anybody near OKC doesn't feel that way.

I am not trying to minimize your feelings or ideas. They are valid and understandable.

[Danmel]

16. I have no doubt about the threat from within

I find many of my fellow citizens to be very scary. And I hope that the threat that they pose is treated seriously. One of the scariest experiences I have had recently was at my congressman's town hall on healthcare. This was in an educated suburb of NYC& it degenerated into a free for all. I am with you.

[Go2Peace]

18. So then we would be better to spend efforts securing our borders and containers

coming into the country.
We will never snuff out those who hate us, especially with our current policies. Better we start paying more attention to our own lands security. Right now there are few checks to keep someone from shipping a N-bomb in a crate. And getting across our borders in mexico is way too easy.

[NightWatcher]

3. too many of us are scared. Scared of another month without a job, healthcare, or hope

Scared of the look on the kids faces come Christmas morning when there's nothing to open.
Scared of when the foodstamps or unemployment might run out.


I dont need to be scared of some boogeyman that might not even exist. Too many of us have real problems.

[Lost-in-FL]

5. Well said. nt

[BobRossi]

7. Bingo!

Fuck Obama's little war.

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. What I really am trying to say

is don't ignore what is going on here. The immediate needs you talk about are as damaging and real as other attacks. They just occur slowly and bring societal structures down more quietly.

If the government is going to truly address terrorism, I believe we are ill-served by what we are doing now. The combination of people who are scared as you say, and the loons winding up whoever they can is much more likely to be a grave threat.

Sadly, some with American names are scarier to me.

[Danmel]

10. Believe me, those things worry me too

I work in local government and trust me, we know how squeezed everybody & every level of government is . More people are in need and we are less able to provide the help they need because it is so bad out there. Our sales tax revenue fell off a cliff, other revenue streams are drying up, the stare government in NY is the laughingstock of the nation. Fortunately at our level of government we don't have to send people to war. I cannot imagine having to make that decision. It all makes me sad.

[HipChick]

6. I grew up with the IRA on my doorstep..

Terrorism is very real to me....the biggest threat seems like it will come from disenfranchised US citizens first generation possibly...especially with calls for profiling...I went back to the UK for a vacation, shortly after 9/11..there were posters of Osama Bin Landin in the front windows of people's home..the shoe bomber was a UK citizen too..
yes, its very real to me..

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. The IRA was on your doorstep,

and that would be bloody terrifying. However, they didn't spring from some outside group. They were part of historical grievances that had been around for years in society.

They are the groups I am talking about. The ones like Posse Comitatus who grow up out of our own history.

If the IRA was just as active now, God forbid, would Bin Ladin be on your personal radar?

In the UK and on the continent, there is a different challenge to face. There isn't an ocean separating you from the new terrors. There has to be vigilance. I am afraid in the US we are taking for granted the domestic part of the equation.

[HipChick]

11. well..people are pointing to an outside threat..

but 9/11 happened and the only then did the US starting running around to close loopholes..but the threat was already inside...

[cliffordu]

13. I think another McVeigh is just a matter of time....

Maybe a bunch of them...

[lib2DaBone]

17. Air Force Pilots with THOUSANDS of hours in combat jets....

have stated repeatedly.. that they could not have pulled off the manuever of the passenger jets on 911.

However, we persist to believe that a couple of Saudi Arabs.. (Notice I said SAUDI Arabs and not Afghanis) could take a few lessons in a Cessna 150 and pull off September 11th.

The American people are opblivious to the facts.. and are being led to slaughter in Afpakistan.

Hang on to your tinfoil chapeau Grits... the fun is just beginning.

When we have food shortages, gasoline shortages, electrical outages and general chaos.. get back to me and we'll talk....