Good think Obama has nominated someone who thinks terrorism merits some slight importance
Erroll Southers, President Obama’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said the war on terror should be given “some parity†with other national priorities such as global warming, education, and the economy.
In the online interview (from 2008), Southers was asked, “How high should the ‘war on terror’ be on our list of national priorities?â€
Southers answered: “It should be high on our list of priorities because of, speaking globally, the threat that exists. Due to connectivity that we have with countries such as Israel, France, countries that are seen by groups, by Al Qaeda as being infidels or anti-Islamic, by the true nature of our alliance with them means that we are subject to being attacked as well.â€
“I do think, however, it deserves to perhaps have some parity with global warming, with education, with the economy,†said Southers.
Got that? It’s kinda important, and we should at least pay lip service to it, almost as much as AGW! More importantly is that fourth paragraph, where he seems to be saying that it is our alliances with other countries, such as one with Jews, that makes the nutjob Islamics attack us, so, it is our fault. Hmm, actually, I’m not that shocked that a far end lefty nominated by Obama thinks Islamic terrorism is our fault. Are you shocked?
“What’s interesting, though, is that next year the Department of Homeland Security has already announced they are going to be reducing their grant funding by about 50 percent,†said Southers. “So that would suggest to someone like me that they have a reasonable expectation that the risk has been reduced, and they can reduce accordingly.â€
Southers said that he would like to see the money previously spent on homeland security re-directed to “those other efforts†he previously referred to: global warming, education, and the economy.
“I would hope that funding would then go to some of those other efforts, nationally, that are priorities for us,†he said in the online interview.
I wonder how he feels about that after the attempted bombing and other airline security issues?
Way to TOTALLY skew what the guy said…I don’t agree with this dude (or even think that his wasteful organization should even exist – along with the rest of das Homeland Security Dept) but let me try to explain in simple terms what I think the guy was saying (hell, even if he WASN’T trying to say this it should still be given attention):
Say your impoverished and fairly insane neighbor family down the street kept throwing stones at your house and knocking your mailbox down (for the allegorically-challenged – these would be your extremist/terrorist types).
Sure, you could try (unsuccessfully) to wipe out all of those pesky family members, but the harder you tried the more likely it would be that you’d be helping them to recruit kindred spirits – after all, you’re one of the wealthiest and most well-fed families on the street. Still, you shouldn’t just sit back and let them continually attack you…WAIT! I have an idea, you could try to understand just WHY it is that they continually attack you.
Sure, it’d be easy to assume that they hate you (which is quite an investment of energy on their part, and doesn’t quite make sense without some sort of actual reason) because you’re somewhat wealthy and well-fed, etc etc…OR you could be a bit more grown-up and try to look into the reality of cause and effect:
hey wait, didn’t your older sibling help to exile their parents way back when (you know, when the insane family was actually kind of stable)? If you don’t follow me, read up on Operation Ajax (where the U.S. and Great Britian overthrew the democratically-elected leader of Iran based on British Petroleum’s request, leaving the people of Iran to suffer under the rule of a violent tyrant for decades). And oh yeah, didn’t the U.S. fund/train/arm the radical Mujaheedin in Afghanistan so that we could turn back the Russkies (and guarantee better access to Afghanistan resources, such as poppies)? Hmm, maybe our older brother (ie: CIA, big business-run-govt at various times) really has NOT had America’s best interests at heart…hmmm
Sure, it’s easy for simplistic morons to turn this around and say ‘you’re blaming Americans for terrorism’ which is about the stupidest thing you could say…I’m blaming TRAITORS and UN-American types for putting a lot of crappy causes into motion – we’re now dealing with the effects of those causes.
Do some research on the term ‘blowback’ and you might start to get the idea…
Perhaps if we had a patriotic, moralistic and cost-effective foreign policy, such as pulling our troops out of foreign countries and defending our borders (plus, got our elected officials out of bed with giant corporations that stand to profit from nonstop war-mongering) the root cause for the extremism would fade…in the meantime, we’d put a huge damper on terrorist recruitment efforts and could still be defending ourselves from the craziest of the crazies.
I dunno, I guess looking at cause and effect take too much effort – it’s easier to have a false sense of nationalism and to keep feeding the doomed-to-fail us-against-them paradigm that keeps the fascist types rolling in the dough (while chipping away at the Constitution).
Sure, it takes some effort to be a good American, but isn’t it worth it?
Annnnnd heeeeeee’s Out of there!!!!!!!!!!!