For IP: Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not

[Brett Glass]

Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not

By Rober Steinback

Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
ROBERT STEINBACK
rsteinback at MiamiHerald.com

One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the
America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.

If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin
Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law
against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then
expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have
presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.

Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000
of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then
admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat
-- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought
our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.

If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace
torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years
without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such
procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have
laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.

If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent
as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda
by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators,
and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S.
military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in
whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called
the prediction an absurd fantasy.

That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and
we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path.

What is there to say now?

All of these things have happened. And yet a large portion of this
country appears more concerned that saying ''Happy Holidays'' could
be a disguised attack on Christianity.

More at  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/13487511.htm


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