U.S. government issues terrorism warning to the wrong people

 

Report this man to the authorities, especially if you are already dead from a terror strike.

Namely, warning its own citizens, not the terrorists and their enablers.

The Obama administration is expected to issue an alert to U.S. citizens in Europe, urging them to be vigilant after new intelligence pointed to new Al Qaeda threats, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Fox News. ...

The officials said the State Department was never considering issuing a travel warning, which advises Americans to stay away from the countries involved. Still, the move could have negative implications for European tourism if travelers fear there's a possibility of terror attacks.

 So, an American planning a sightseeing trip to the former cradle of Western civilization should be vigilant, but should not feel warned. Such hair-splitting absurdities are now standard operating procedure in the politics of security.

"Vigilant" is a weasel word, meaningless for those it is directed to, merely building a defense for the government. A jihadist disguised as an ordinary illegal immigrant blew himself to scraps, along with you as a side effect? Too bad, bub. We told you to be vigilant.

If this terror alert business were no more than a verbal game, we could ignore it as we ignore all sorts of politicobabble (if we want to stay sane). But it also sends a signal to Al Qaeda and its farm teams: we'll stop at nothing to protect our people, including telling them to be vigilant. The cities of Europe and the United States are yours to terrorize, but don't think for a Mecca minute that their inhabitants and visitors won't be nervously looking over their shoulders.

Language technicalities apart, the Failed Messiah administration is warning Americans about placing their bodies in Europe -- and, for that matter, the United States. Its citizens are treated like the hapless folks too poor to move out of a bad neighborhood, so they don't venture outside any more than they have to, and listen for any suspicious sound during the long night.

Without any doubt, more is going on: intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies of both the U.S. and European states are working their tails off to spike new plots. Judging from the many reports about arrests of terrorists and interdiction of their bases in Pakistan -- to which you can add successes the agencies don't publicize for tactical reasons --  they are doing spectacularly well, considering what they're up against.

But nine years after we were given every reason to know better, we are still treating terrorism as a criminal offense. Take a bite out of man-caused disasters!

We are still officially committed to prevention. But you know the saying about what the best defense is, and that is where we're failing, for fear of offending the adherents of the politico-religious system that nurtures the terrorism.

We cannot take the offensive because we are roped to a piece of false logic. Most Muslims are not terrorists. (Only one-fourth of British Muslims believed the 7/7 terror attacks in London were justified.) Therefore, anything beyond defense will drive "moderate" Muslims -- those content to wait for demographics to bring sharia law to the West -- into the arms (or into using the arms) of the fanatics.

But there is no evidence that we are given any credit in the mosques and banlieues for our restraint. We simply look weak and decadent, trying to win by not losing too much. But you can't use damage control to overcome an enemy determined on winning.

We shouldn't be content with warning our own. We should be warning those who would harm them.