From the declassified key judgments:
...We judge that al-Qaida will continue to pose the greatest threat to the Homeland and US interests abroad...Homeland.
We assess that the operational threat from self-radicalized cells will grow in importance to US counterterrorism efforts, particularly abroad but also in the Homeland...
...[groups like Jamaah Islamiya and Ansar al-Sunnah] pose less of a danger to the Homeland than does al-
Qaeida...
When did we re-brand this nation as "the Homeland?" As in: the-completely-fabricated-proper-noun, Homeland.
When did "America" become inadequate to describe where we live? Why do we suddenly need to refer to this nation as anything other than its given name?
Nevermind the fascist overtones this re-branded pretender implies. Ask yourself, what need is this word filling? Precision? Imprecision?
Department of Homeland Security.
Why in Sam Hell couldn't we have a Department of Domestic Security?
There are bigger fish to fry in the world, but its just another symptom of an ideology moving to sneak into our thoughts by taking over the language.
Estate tax? Death Tax.
Eavesdropping? Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Torture? Interrogation Techniques.
Don't think of America in the same way, this seems to suggest - think of it our way.
Sorry, but I live in America. The "homeland" can bite me.
5 comments:
Can I still call WI the "motherland"?
Thank you. Every time I hear something like "defending the homeland" I immediately think of the creepiest part of Caberet: the bit in the beer garden where everyone starts singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me".
Mike beat me to it. That is exactly what I think, too.
Here is the scene from Caberet the 1972 movie.
Or, just the creepy lyrics here. Fatherland/homeland...sounds scary either way.
I think the main problem is that the old, castrated Nixonians (Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al) learned the WRONG lessons from the 70s. I also think that they paid attention in school and learned all about WWII and maybe even read Orwell's 1984 -- but they learned the WRONG lessons from these things.
I can't actually figure out what is wrong with these people. Is greed, or fear, power hunger, or are they sociopaths?
I think it's the age old problem of the more power you have, the more tempted you are to use it.
With one party holding most of the levers of power - it becomes a pretty short path from "these ends justify these means," to "these ends justify any means."
It just seems like those in power stress the justification (9/11, Bin Laden, Saddam, global terror) to a level that is just absurd. War without end justifying power without limit.
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