The ONLY reason for a "Terrorism Alert System" is POLITICAL.

[TahitiNut]

This thing has perplexed me for some time. It has never been clear to me what legitimate purpose is served. DimSon is seen (in front of the minority journalists) as questioning them about how people would criticize the madministration if terrorists were to succeed in bombing a building and the madministration hadn't warned them. This is revealing. How indeed? More pertinently: Why?

First let's make some very obvious things clear: Terrorists aren't tornadoes. Tornadoes can't (yet) be prevented, neutralized, or eliminated, no matter how specific the information regarding their existence and path. Destructive human behavior, however, is preventable. (If we don't know this, we're lost.)

I submit that the only reason this administration has the "alert system" is because they're posturing. They're (intentionally?) incapable of being effective in preventing or neutralizing. There's not a damned thing that the general public can do that the various organizations which the public has empowered cannot do, far more effectively. If that's not true, then we're wasting untold billions for absolutely nothing. After all, why do we even have a single criminal law, a single jail cell, or a single cop carrying a gun if that's not true?

The information regarding such prospective behavior is, as always, the answers, to varying degrees of specificity, to the questions of "Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How??" How anyone deals with this information is the difference between effectiveness and posturing.

There isn't a single one of these questions, as the answer to which becomes more specific, that isn't far more effectively dealt with by a preemptive government response of equal specificity than by some general 'alert' that is merely intended to prevent criticism rather than prevent the event itself.

[HFishbine]

1. Well put

Nominated for home page.

[ThePhilosopher04]

2. No question it's politics...

and it's called CYA! I heard Bush say the other day, "what would you be writing if we didn't issue a warning and there was an attack?"

That rhetorical question alone is political in nature. He's more worried about potential criticism than he is about doing the right thing...which is working quietly behind the scenes to avert an attack while not alarming the public.

In my opinion, unless DHS willing to say, "stay home," or "avoid the specific target until further notice," the alert system doesn't serve much of a purpose, other than to cover their collective asses, which is POLITICAL!!!

[efhmc]

3. The problem with this is that they can claim victory either way and still

not have helped the American people at all.

[TahitiNut]

4. Exactly. It's preemptive abdication of accountability.

Their entire posture is premised on their own failure. Their anally-fixated "expertise" is digging through their own turds to find undigested specks of food. They lower the bar to subterranean levels and persist in claiming that bad is good and only the poor need sacrifice. Like their corporate brethren, all costs are "externalized" and born by others while all benefits are confiscated by the powerful. They proclaim morals while being totally amoral. They proclaim virtue while behaving without virtue of any kind. They demean the service and sacrifices of others while offering none of their own. This is, by far, the most corrupt and decadent cabal in this nation's history.

[Karenina]

5. Those BILLIONS

are keeping *dimson's cronies "in the money."

[Junkdrawer]

6. If memory serves, The Terrorism Alert System started about the...

same time as news was leaking out that there were lots of indications of 9/11 that the mis-Administration either ignored or blocked. LIHOP, although not called that at the time, was starting to be whispered and the cover story - the CIA and FBI didn't talk to each other - was making the rounds.

This "alert" system was kind of a "well, if you're going to blame us for not acting, we'll scare the bejesus out of you from time-to-time -how do you like them apples?" reaction.

[TahitiNut]

7. I think it's a deliberate ploy ...

After all, how can they be challenged for not knowing (let alone 'not doing') if they're periodically telling folks to "be alert"? It's a substitute for 'action'.

It's a presumptive turning of the tables - a finesse. Rather than demonstrate any accountability for taking any appropriate action with the shreds of information they're constantly harvesting (using public money supposedly for public benefit), they can periodically challenge the public to take some ill-defined 'action' (i.e. "be alert") regurgitating even fewer of the shreds of information they've received.

I get the image of a lobotomized beast (government where the brain called Clinton/Gore was removed), still with a huge appetite (ravenous for money and power) but with an anus and rectum transplanted to where the frontal lobe belongs. The beast still eats, defecates, and has other autonomic responses ... but it shows only subhuman intelligence. Thus, rather than reason, it resorts to growling and roaring and spitting. It cannot process information (stimuli) it's getting and compose a reasoned response, so it makes unintelligible grunts: vague echoes of incoming stimuli. (Sadly, the beast has claws, fangs, and muscles - but is no longer able to use them responsibly.)

---

Strolling through a local park, I saw a man sitting on a bench tearing small bits from a newspaper and throwing them into the air. Wondering about his rationale for such littering, I stopped and asked him why he was doing it.
"It keeps the elephants away," he replied.
"But there are no elephants anywhere near here" I protested, somewhat perplexed.
With a smirk on his face (and drool on his chin) he replied "See? It works!"

[Junkdrawer]

8. Well, however it started, you're right: It's now just a tool in Rove's...

tool chest. It moves a story off the front page and gives an ever-diminishing bump to Dim Son.

There is, however a BIG downside to all this: The United States in now a perfect setup for real terrorists, By politicizing terrorism, each new terror attack will further divide, not unite, the populace. Expect this to play out after this coming (stolen??) election.