Digby has a nice long post today about what happens when innocent people, like the guy whose crossword puzzle scribblings got him onto the Homeland Security watch list, get swept into the DHS's web.
His conclusion?
The stories begin to accumulate, each one a random intrusion by dumb, underqualified government authorities who seem to have watched too much television and have very little common sense.
Dumb? Not quite. What I think we're seeing is a bunch of people who do not know how to handle the situation they have been thrust into. This is not to say they're stupid. They're scared, and scared people rarely make smart choices. Just look at today's latest security alert:
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday warned Americans that al Qaeda may try to carry out "a large-scale attack" to disrupt upcoming elections, but offered no details and had no plans to raise the terror threat level.
Bottom line, this is about fear - or terror, if you will - and how humans respond to it. You'd think that by now we'd have learned that the predictable response is usually the wrong one, and that we need some new solutions.
How are people supposed to react when they hear ongoing unspecified warnings of terrorist threats? Absent any concrete information, those of a more fearful cast of mind are going to see a potential threat at every hand. A doodle on the edge of a crossword puzzle can be seen as a threat of lethal action. (There's a Greek tragedy in there somewhere but I'm not smart enough to write it.)
Those of a more conspiracy theorist cast of mind will say that the government's true intent is to keep American citizens cowed and fearful while they move forward to bring about their own nefarious goals. I believe that about as much as I believe the wingnuts who insist that anyone who seriously opposes the Clintons ends up dead - which is to say, not at all.
I have previously commented on the similarities of our current invasion of Iraq with Vietnam. But it also occurs to me that parallels to the "Red Scares" of the 20s and 50s are also apt for the times we live in today. Apparently we have to re-learn the lessons of history all over again.
