Have we ever had a moment's peace?

I really like what Patrick Smith, who writes the Ask the Pilot blog over at Salon:

I hate sounding conspiratorial, but it often feels as if these warnings serve little purpose beyond keeping the American populace frightened and easily manipulated, lest it regain consciousness and dare interrupt the torrent of cash pouring into the coffers of the security-industrial complex.

Personally, I don't think this idea is that conspiratorial. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is a great source to explain how this works.

For decades now our politicians have been utilizing the "Fear Factor" to push their agendas. I remember spending two thirds of my life under the umbrella of "The Cold War." Any day the Russians were going to drop their atomic bombs on us. We just HAD to HAVE a "mutually assured destruction" scenario to maintain the balance and thwart those bad guys. Thus, our Military/Industrial Complex (MIC) churned away accumulating massive profits as we constantly built up our weaponry.

Of course, once that threat was finally gone(Whew!), we felt relieved that it was over, and we could have peace across the land. Wrong!

Obviously, for the MIC, a new threat had to be found to keep the massive profits humming right along. Welcome to the nebulous, shadowy world of "Terrorism"! Now this is perfect! Its can never be fully extinguished. Someone, somewhere in the world will be hating the U.S. at any time. Voila! We now have a never-ending story for which the MIC can forever profit. Good one!

So here we are. The bottom line is what Mr. Smith says:

Nobody will admit what's obvious...that we cannot protect ourselves from every conceivable threat.

However, that is the sacrifice we must make if we are to be an open and free country.