Posted on 03/28/2016 11:21:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
It was not long after last week's horrifying bombings in Brussels that the so-called security experts were out warning that Europeans must give up more of their liberty so government can keep them secure from terrorism. I guess people are not supposed to notice that every terrorist attack represents a major government failure and that rewarding failure with more of the same policies only invites more failure.
I am sure a frightened population will find government promises of perfect security attractive and may be willing to allow more surveillance of their personal lives. They should pause a little beforehand and consider what their governments have done so far to keep them "safe."
The government of France, for example, has been particularly aggressive in its Middle East policy. Then-French President Sarkozy was among the most determined proponents of "regime change" in Libya. That operation has left the country in chaos, with much of the territory controlled by an ISIS and al-Qaeda that were not there before the "liberation." As we learned last week from Hillary Clinton's emails, Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were much more concerned with getting their hands on Libya's oil after the overthrow of Gaddafi. The creation of a hotbed of terrorism that could easily make its way to Europe was not important. They wanted to secure enormously profitable deals for well-connected French and English energy companies.
Likewise, European governments have been very active in the five-year, American-led effort to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. This foolish move has boosted both ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria to the point where they nearly over-ran the country late last year. It has also led millions to flee their war-torn country for a Europe that has opened its doors with the promise of generous benefits to anyone who can make it there. Is it any surprise that so many hundreds of thousands took them up on the offer? Is it any surprise that in this incredible flood of people there may be more than a few who are interested in more than just free housing and a welfare check?
Europeans should be demanding to know why their governments provoke people in the Middle East with aggressive foreign policies, and then open the door to millions of them. Do their leaders just lack basic common sense?
Usually the so-called security experts who advise more government surveillance after a terrorist attack have a conflict of interest. They often benefit when the security state is given a bigger budget. Insecurity is the bread-and-butter of the security "experts." But why is it that after a terrorist attack, governments are rewarded with bigger budgets and more power over people? Shouldn't failure be punished instead of rewarded?
As in the United States, the security crisis in Europe is directly tied to bad policy. Until bad policy is changed, no amount of surveillance, racial profiling, and police harassment can make the population safer. Europeans already seem to understand this, and as we have seen in recent German elections they are abandoning the parties that promise that the same old bad policies will this time produce different results.
Hopefully Americans will also stand up and demand a change in our foreign policy before bad policy leads to more terrorist violence on our shores.
Words on paper or hot air in political chambers would not stop one determined terrorist. They’ll laugh in your general direction.
> A European PATRIOT Act Will Not Keep People Safe
and neither will an American Patriot Act.
Ron Paul knocks it out of the park!
How well I remember the howls of so many freepers many years ago calling those who resisted the Patriot Act traitors and quislings. Ron Paul dismissed as a lunatic, etc etc etc.
Time has shown that the Act has achieved nothing except the trammeling of rights. TSA is a joke. Homeland Security a refuge of incompetent bureaucrats; their greatest achievement last year was the changing of the colors of the alert levels. Europeans would do well to heed the utter failure of the PatAct and reject the calls of their own fascists for more govt power.
European nations should first fire the top 3 levels of their security agencies, as should have been done here to the FBI, CIA and NSA after 9-11. Never should incompetents like ours be rewarded with bigger budgets. Learn from our mistakes.
-—”TSA is a joke. Homeland Security a refuge of incompetent bureaucrats.”
While I agree with you on totally incompetent gov’t bureaucrats, can you offer a better suggestion than TSA, for airport security, for example?
One can easily criticize the TSA, but is there a viable alternative?
Again, I’m not here to defend TSA, just wondering how this could be done better...
Yes. Let the airlines hire private security honchoed by the Israelis. Then they’d profile and could get rid of all that expensive and dangerous scanning gear.
OK, fair enough. I’m all for profiling likely cultural suspects rather than old ladies.
I’m also all for Israeli security (best in the world), but do you reeeeally think that could be done for less cost and less intrusively?
The way I see it, there isn’t a simple solution to getting many unknown people & baggage safely screened and onto many planes — without some sort of costly intrusion. Do you?
Outsource, privatize. TSA created by Democrats to appease unions. There should be no TSA, as Bush said at the time, because it will become an expensive bureaucracy with too little accountability and difficult to control, as with all govt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.