Every time Tom Ridge pipes up about the terror threat being up it bothers me. First, because its always so vague and it’s always “at the greatest level we’ve seen since 9/11”. How many ‘greatest’ levels will there be before people totally tune out?
Second, they never explain to the average citizen what to do with the info. One the website dhc.gov they do a little 'splaining, but on the main outlet of info for americans, television, all they say is that “We’ve raised the terror alert! All governmental agencies and protective personel are on high alert! But, please, go about your business.”
Why say there is a threat and not explain what to do? If we are to ‘go about our business’, then aren’t we doing nothing? Why not in that case just send out a memo to ONLY the governmental agencies, and stay off the TV.
I don’t mind being a little more vigilant in watching for strange vehicles, packages, activity, etc. But to institute this whole “Terror Alert” system and scare everyone with vague ‘high terrorist chatter’ shit, and then say “Oh, just do what you’ve always done.” WTF?
*Paragraph 2 is my main question, the rest is my silly ranting.
While I do not think the Administration is deliberately dinking with the terror alert level just for giggles (“Hey, George, let’s send the masses into a screaming panic again!”), I do wonder if sometimes these increases are done just as a way of making everyone more aware (and anxious) around certain times. E.g., instead of just having Tom Ridge come out and say “Happy holidays, and remember to keep an eye out for any suspicious activities that might be happening this time of the year,” they just bump it up to Orange Alert.
That said, I still think the entire terror alert system is a crock. I don’t expect to see anyone bump it down to blue or green, because then they’d be caught red-faced if something does happen, and I don’t expect it to be abandoned because it’s a convenient political tool – it lets the government look like it’s actively doing something about terrorism, even if it’s ineffectual.
It seems to me that there has been an intentional effort to create a pervasive yet unfocused sense of fear on behalf of the American public. The Sherwin-Williams color chips o’ fear are but one aspect of this.
You will have to draw your own conclusions as to why the admin might wish to act in such a manner. My personal views on the matter tend to be somewhat cynical.
Here’s the rather optimistic way I thought it through last night…
The government intends the Terror Alert System to be an alert level gradation for law enforcement and security forces first and foremost–remember, different levels of alertness trigger various actions within these forces.
Now you may be saying, “Well duh, so why not just order all the law enforcement/security forces on alert without notifying the public? That way we won’t all flip out!”
Well yeah, but what happens when the press catches wind of this? Headlines that scream “DOOM IMMINENT, ADMINISTRATION LIES, PRAY FOR MOJO!” So the Administration chooses to bypass that whole snafu and just alert everyone simultaneously. Therefore, the Terror Alert System is just a well-intentioned but poorly executed warning infrastructure, not a government plot.
rjung, you make an excellent point about the lack of blue or green warning status announcements. Use the whole range or scrap the whole thing, I say.
My belief takes a bit from rjung and a bit from Dinsdale. The color alert system is a convenient political tool in that it creates a pervasive sense of fear which in turn creates a more subservient American public. I find it all quite sickening. They’re preying on our fears to further their own agendas. Example: Seeing how quickly the first Patriot Act was passed.
The blind cynisism bothers me. I can be as suspicious of government actions as the next guy. But this seems to be a complaint without a basis. We all remember the bad guys are out there right? Just because we’re paranoid doesn’t mean the bastards aren’t out to get us.
Assume for a moment that Homeland security has some credible intelligence indicating more activity than usual (or the last few months if usual is too hard to define). What would you have them do? Would you really have them send secret memos to police chiefs? Would you rather they publish transcripts of intercepted communications? Perhaps with the time and date and a schematic of the device we used to decrypt the messages?
OK, that goes a bit far. I realize you are not advocating anything even remotely like that. But it seems to me that unless you ascribe some nefarious motive to the terror alert system, then it does serve the purpose of letting the public know what security footing the state apperatus is on. That is, it let’s us have as much information as can be distributed about the current situation without comprimising secuirty.
As to the second paragraph of the OP, you answered that in your third paragraph. Simply be aware that terrorists may bu up to something. Don’t let it paralyze you, because the odds are in your favor not to be a target. But if you work in certain areas you might want to be a little more vigilant in the coming days.
Upon seeing pervert’s post I will concede that credible threats most likely have been made and the public should be made aware. I think my cynisism is directed more at the media and its propagation of the fear created by the terror alerts. I’m still cynical enough to believe the media and the government are deeply connected and lately I can’t tell the difference between the two. So I suppose I’m back where I started.
Three simple words: Cover Your Ass. That’s all the govt. is doing. They just don’t want it to look like they’re sleeping again (as everyone thinks they were on 9/11).
What else does Tom Ridge have to do? He is the head of a brand new government agency created out of desperation by an administration wanting to actually look like it is doing something.
Just needed to add an example to help make my point:
The Department of Transportation tells the Coast Guard what to do. Now we have the Department of Homeland Security telling the Department of Transportation to tell the Coast Guard what to do.
I guess it’s the “for want of a nail” concept gone backwards.
I don’t think it’s cynical to say that the main purpose is to instill fear in the public. What other purpose is there? If this fear leads to increased alertness and helps us prevent a terrorist act, then perhaps that’s justified. Whether this is the main purpose is subject to debate, I suppose.
Intentional or not, the Bush administration’s strongest selling point is the tough stance on terrorism. It doesn’t hurt them if the public is reminded (or deceived into thinking) that terrorism is still a constant threat.
One theory is that it lets the terrorists know that we know they’re up to something and that we are not as soft a target as they’d like to attempt. <I know, that’s a horribly worded sentence.>
It also lets the general public know why all of a sudden there are National Guard troops (or whatever) in someplace they weren’t yesterday.
If there was no such announcement, and there suddenly seemed to be more security actions, the next cry would be that “they” know something that “they” are not telling us.
I always wonder if we will ever see it at red - the equivalent of “Here it comes. Kiss your ass goodbye.” Would they ever admit that something serious was going down that they could not contain?
Yellow and orange is a CYA maneuver.
My own personal feeling is agreeable with some here: Bush adm. is covering its ass and the alert levels are useless.
Having said that, I recognize there has to be a way to deal with terror threats and the probability that we will never see another terrorist act on US soil is very low. Terrorism is here to stay unfortunately, for a long while.
Again, why say “Terrorist activity is high!” and in the same breath, “Go about your business.”? If OUR government (made up of WE the people, meaning ALL OF US) are serious about dealing with terrorism, we will not ‘go about our business as usual.’ We will congregate, fly, shop, drive, a little less and reduce targets.
We will be…terrorized.
Do we want to do that?
Hell, no!
So, beef up security at that football game or airport or whereever, don’t scare people on television, and when a terrorist activity unfortunately occurs, americans need to not blame OUR government or let lawsuits fly, but learn from it to increase prevention for the next time.
…no lawsuits…heh, yeah right.
Sounds pretty serious to me. I just hope the terrorists’ plot isn’t allowed to succeed. As inept as the CIA and FBI have proven to be, it looks like they may have done an ok job on this one, as they did on the late-90s blow 12 planes up islamic terrorist plot.
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As long as the varying levels of threat require absolutely nothing on the part of the American public, they will continue to be ignored. I agree with the previous post that they are meaningful to law enforcement, released to the public because we’d find out anyway. But bouncing between yellow and orange does nothing but make the system meaningless.
The Daily Show’s Stephen Colbert captured it perfectly. “Yellow” means (pantomime looking around alertly). “Orange” means (pantomime looking around, with hand to forehead shading one’s eyes).