War On Terror Or War On Freedom?
By Chuck Baldwin
September 22, 2011
Archived column:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=4002
A recent major investigative report by the Los Angeles Times sheds
light on what all this “war on terror” is actually costing--and
actually accomplishing. According to the report, “A decade after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
federal and state governments are spending about $75 billion a year on
domestic security, setting up sophisticated radio networks, upgrading
emergency medical response equipment, installing surveillance cameras
and bombproof walls, and outfitting airport screeners to detect an
ever-evolving list of mobile explosives.
“But how effective has that 10-year spending spree been?
“‘The number of people worldwide who are killed by Muslim-type
terrorists, Al Qaeda wannabes, is maybe a few hundred outside of war
zones. It’s basically the same number of people who die drowning in
the bathtub each year,’ said John Mueller, an Ohio State University
professor who has written extensively about the balance between threat
and expenditures in fighting terrorism.”
The LA Times report goes on to say, “Like the military-industrial
complex that became a permanent and powerful part of the American
landscape during the Cold War, the vast network of Homeland Security
spyware, concrete barricades and high-tech identity screening is here
to stay. The Department of Homeland Security, a collection of agencies
ranging from border control to airport security sewn quickly together
after Sept. 11, is the third-largest Cabinet department and--with
almost no lawmaker willing to render the U.S. less prepared for a
terrorist attack--one of those least to fall victim to budget cuts.
“The expensive and time-consuming screening now routine for
passengers at airport boarding gates has detected plenty of knives,
loaded guns and other contraband, but it has never identified a
terrorist who was about to board a plane. Only 14 Americans have died
in about three dozen instances of Islamic extremist terrorist plots
targeted at the U.S. outside war zones since 2001--most of them
involving one or two home-grown plotters.”
The report also notes, “Large sums of Homeland Security money,
critics complain, have been propelled by pork barrel politics into the
backyards of the congressionally connected.”
See the LA Times report at:
http://tinyurl.com/3u3olzx
Add to the LA Times report a report by Madison Ruppert. In the
report, Ruppert notes that it is clearly the Bill of
Rights--especially the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and the
Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms--that are suffering
the most egregious attacks from the federal government’s “war on
terror.”
Ruppert concludes his report saying, “In short, despite the fact
that all the statistics and data in the world directly contradict the
report’s findings and the claims made by clearly biased
‘experts’ on the threat of terrorism, especially of the homegrown
variety, the HSPI and other
bodies continue to fearmonger and lie to the American people to keep
us scared while they empty our pockets and continue their
imperialistic adventures in the Middle East and now North Africa.”
See Ruppert’s column at:
http://blacklistednews.com/?news_id=15638&print=1
Back to the Times report, not only do we Americans have about an
equal chance of dying at the hands of a terrorist as we do dying in
our own bathtubs, we have a much greater risk of dying at the hands of
prescription drugs--something lawfully encouraged and tightly
controlled by the US government. According to a recent report, more
people now die each year from prescription drugs than from automobile
accidents. That’s some 37,000 deaths via prescription drugs
annually! (Come to think of it, how many people do you know who have
died from marijuana?) And as hard as it will be for some people to
accept, this number is gigantically greater than those who die from
hard drugs such as heroin or crack cocaine. In fact, the prescription
drug Vicodin, by itself, has killed more people than cocaine and
heroin combined.
See the report on prescription drug deaths at:
http://tinyurl.com/6eh8bw3
So, what has this trillion-dollar “war on terror” accomplished?
If it’s not making us more secure, what is it doing? Well, for one
thing, it has created a stupendous surveillance society. Virtually
every piece of public communication is now captured and stored by the
federal government. Surveillance cameras are now ubiquitous throughout
the United States. We have a gargantuan federal police department
(which is anathema to the US Constitution): the Department of Homeland
Security. We have thousands of Orwellian laws, most of which were
spawned by the Patriot Act. And more and more often, law enforcement
agencies are demonizing US citizens for their religious and political
beliefs and statements--even categorizing them as potential domestic
terrorists based simply on those religious and political beliefs.
To refresh reader’s minds regarding how Americans have been
labeled, profiled, and denigrated as “terrorists” because of their
religious or political beliefs, please peruse the material on this web
page:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=52
Fortunately, it does appear that the combination of an emerging
police state and a declining economy that has resulted from this
“war on terror” is finally starting to catch the attention of the
American people. According to a Brooking Institution report, “Six in
ten Americans believe that that the United States weakened its economy
by overspending in its responses to the 9/11 attacks. In particular,
respondents felt this was especially true of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
Two out of three Americans perceive that over the decade since 9/11,
U.S. power and influence in the world has declined.”
A Rasmussen report further revealed, “As with the recent turmoil in
Egypt, most Americans (67%) say the United States should leave the
situation in the Arab countries alone.”
Beyond that, “A Zogby poll conducted in August 2007 found that 51%
of Americans want Congress to probe Bush/Cheney regarding the 9/11
attacks, two-thirds (67%) of Americans say the 9/11 Commission should
have investigated the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.”
See the BlacklistedNews.com report containing the above survey
results and more at:
http://tinyurl.com/3v2n538
The LA Times is right to question what Americans are getting for
their $75 billion a year contribution to the “war on terror.” Some
could even argue--with convincing data--that the “war on terror”
is in reality a “war on freedom.”
P.S. Understanding the financial difficulties that many people are
having due to the current recession, and wanting to help people who
desire to download my video and audio messages, we have reduced the
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P.S.S. Our printer has just cleared his warehouse of all remaining
FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. We now have 50 copies of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS
available. And with our move to Montana, it is not certain that we
will be able to provide FREEDOM DOCUMENTS this Christmas as usual. So,
if readers want to obtain this fabulous collection of America’s
great historical documents in one volume, we have a total of only 50
copies that will be shipped while the supply lasts on a first-come,
first-served basis. To order FREEDOM DOCUMENTS, go to:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=279
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Chuck Baldwin
NOTE TO THE READER:
Chuck Baldwin is a syndicated columnist, radio broadcaster, author, and
pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America
was founded. He was the 2008 Presidential candidate for the Constitution
Party. He and his wife, Connie, have 3 children and 8 grandchildren. See
Chuck's complete bio at:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=6
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