Yesterday, Glenn Beck guest and former CIA official Michael Scheuer openly hoped for a terrorist attack on the United States, saying, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. … It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.” Beck nodded solemnly.
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But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.
I’d just add that there will almost certainly be no consequences for this. Two nutty conservatives can talk about the advantages of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — indeed, they can long for it — without facing any real pushback at all. There won’t be any suspensions or boycotts. No sponsors will withdraw. None of Beck’s or Scheuer’s allies will distance themselves, and neither one will be excluded from polite company.It was, in other words, just another day on Glenn Beck’s highly-rated unbalanced national television broadcast.
I’d just add that, during the Iraq War, it was not uncommon for Republicans to pretend that Democrats wanted the war to go badly in order to sneakily achieve policy objectives. That was such a horrible thing, even imagining that it was true was enough to fire up the faithful. Yet here, it’s actually happening, and it’s embraced by the very tens of millions who were horrified by the thought of Democrats doing it. I realize that Glenn Beck and Fox News have long defied even the exaggerations of rhetorical questions, but what kind of sick freak hopes for a terrorist attack on Americans?
What does this say about our society when there are no consequences, no sponsors leaving, no boycotts, etc? It seems like the silent majority agrees with them, for better or worse…
(for the record, I think that we are no safer now than before 9/11, I don’t like Bush or Obama, and I hope that our country will, at some point, come to realize that we can protect ourselves without sacrificing our liberties or fellow Americans, but seeing articles like this, I just don’t know.)
This is very scary. The really frightening part is that these guys are basically egging on their minions to conduct more acts of domestic terrorism.
And these guys are crazy. In one ear they complain the government is infringing on their liberty and shout “Gov’t out of our lives!” and “State’s Rights.” In the other year they complain that only a large, powerful Federal Government can save us.
I, for one, pledged that I would not live in fear of terrorist attacks and not allow that fear to alter our way of life. It’s funny, FDR says “the only thing to fear is fear itself.” Now, the conservatives are yelling “Be afraid, be very afraid and look to government to protect you.”
Between Safety and Liberty, I’ll take Liberty every time.
“I hope that our country will, at some point, come to realize that we can protect ourselves without sacrificing our liberties or fellow Americans” -Ditto
It’s not like he did something really protest-worthy, like accidentally telling a joke about the wrong Palin kid.