Is my country fearful of people who are terrorists?
This is a simple question, but needs to be opened up for discussion.
It seems to me many people in our nation, of all political persuasions, are still be trapped in a 9/11 post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). When I see people like Harry Reid, and Jim Webb, (JIM WEBB??) saying "not in my backyard" in regards to imprisoning Guantanamo detainees, I begin to wonder what our country has slipped into during the last 8 years.
Has Dick Cheney won the "hearts and minds" of Americans? As I watch Cheney for the umpteenth time defend the use of torture as a useful tool, I have my feelings of anger and outrage towards this despicable man, but also to see him as someone who is simply scared as hell of these terrorists, as people. As I read recent accounts of Cheney after 9/11 walking around with gas masks, body suits, and fearing he was going to be poisoned by terrorists, it really begins to reveal to me that he and many others are, to this day, might still be suffering from 9/11-PTSD. I think it is fair to say that right after 9/11 many of us (including me) had the feeling of "They are coming to get us!". Days and weeks later, it changed to "COME AND GET US, ASSHOLES!" I think subconsciously many may be stuck in the previous train of thought.
Don't get me wrong, we should always be on alert to what is happening around the world regarding terrorist-actions, but let's not elevate these monsters to anything more than they are. They are not our Over-Lords. We have to mentally refuse to give them the advantage over us. We cannot continue debase the rights and laws which make our country great, which Dick Cheney so flippantly did in the past.
President Obama might garner a new title as Therapist-In-Chief as he deals with closing Guantanamo Bay, restoring the rule of law, and moving our country therapeutically forward from the irrational fear that these terrorists are some sort of super-human beings that somehow cannot be contained with the technology we, as the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, have at our disposal.
Let's not perpetuate the rule-of-fear, as Dick Cheney wants. We must bravely go forward and restore the rule-of-law, as President Obama implores.