Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute, on "The Greatest Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself:
One of the few roles for government on which most people of varying political stripes can agree is the defense of citizens — including protection from terrorist attacks. So why is the U.S. government aiding the terrorists in terrorizing Americans?
For the holiday season and perhaps beyond, the U.S. government has raised the threat level in the nationwide five color-coded alert system to orange (meaning “high”) from yellow (the mid-range value meaning “elevated”). News of that change, beamed around the country, made many Americans jumpy during the height of the holiday travel season. But that outcome is the very goal of the terrorists.
Terrorists terrorize the population by killing a few people — or in the case of the September 11 attacks, more than a few — and making the rest fearful. A government should do everything possible to prevent that outcome, but the U.S. government’s alert system does the opposite.
Read the rest of Dr. Eland's piece here.