The Only Thing We Have To Fear Are Words Themselves
Posted March 19th, 2009 at 8:18am in American Leadership, Protect America 
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In two months on the job, Janet Napolitano, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, has won the war on terror. How? By defining it away. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, she refers to her remarks at her own confirmation hearings in January:
In my speech, although I did not use the word “terrorism,” I referred to “man-caused” disasters.
No one paid much attention to this at the time, but she meant something by it. As she told her German audience, it is “only a nuance,” but it is a “move away from the politics of fear.”
It’s also a move into the realm where words, not actions, matter. Disasters happen. Terrorism has political motives. It is not a disaster: it is an attack. It is rational to be fearful if someone says they want to destroy you, especially if they have repeatedly attacked you. And it’s curious for the Obama administration, which used the public’s fear of a depression as a tool to sell the so-called stimulus bill, to say it wants to move away from the “politics of fear.”
Napolitano’s remarks later in her interview are also worrying. At the prompting of the interviewer, she explains that part of the job of DHS is to pursue a policy of counter-radicalization. And how is this to be done? It’s the responsibility of a group “within my agency, the civil liberties group.” The implication of this statement is that the U.S. needs only preserve its civil liberties to prevent the rise of domestic Islamic radicalism.
There are certainly places in the world that do not respect the civil liberties of Muslims (or anyone else, for that matter): the tyrannical regimes of the Middle East. Not coincidentally, that is where Islamic radicalism was born. All Americans will agree with Secretary Napolitano in her staunch support for civil liberties. But they will also expect her to be as staunch in her determination to protect the United States from its external enemies, and to understand that Islamist terrorism is not a disaster: it is a threat with deep and foreign ideological roots.
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2 Responses to “The Only Thing We Have To Fear Are Words Themselves”
Spiritof76, New Hampshire on March 19th, 2009 at 8:18am said:
This article is a clear illustration of the so-called “fair treatment” of our officials vile positions.
“All Americans will agree with Secretary Napolitano in her staunch support for civil liberties.”
What a crock? Napolitano and her boss are of the view that America is the problem. Terrorism is the cause of anger created by the policies of the United States.
Look at Obama administration’s actions already- Shut down Gitmo, release the terrorists, term any thing and everything as torture, stop arming the pilots of the commercial airline. Do you need anymore proof which side Obama and his minions are on?
David, Hilton Head on March 19th, 2009 at 8:18am said:
I have only one word…..TWIT!
Go and stick your head in the sand the ACLU will make every thing OK.