If you haven’t noticed already, you’ll certainly start seeing soon the increase in articles published in the daily sad rag news sources.  The bit “T” word is coming back with a vengence.  TERRORISM!!!  mwahahahah!

Do me a favor (and yourself too), don’t be afraid.

Now that the elections are over, news sources need to fill the gaps in reporting with something. Why not fall back on ol’ reliable terrorist scares?  Because lord knows the media has made us scared of most everything else (food, water, driving, sex…  they all cause cancer in some way or another, right?).

We all know that incoming Presidents are tested in one form or another.   We also know that the whole damn world is looking at Barack Obama.  Some with love, some with disdain, but looking none-the-less.   With that, there’s a sense of unease partly with anticipation of what he can do as the President of the United States and partly with how the world will react to  him.

Which is why I think the media is reporting heavily (again) on future terrorist threats.   Is it just another opportunity to feed the collectively anxious American psyche?

As the world’s leader, the United States should ALWAYS be aware of terrorist threats.  That’s why we have amazing departments like that of Homeland Security.  That’s why we have the most technologically advanced and powerful military.  That’s why we have security on our borders and in our airports.  We know, we know, we know, terrorism is coming our way….but we are prepared, people.  And if something catastrophic happens again like 9/11, I’ve got good news for everyone.  We are strong!  If 9/11 proved one thing it’s that we’re strong enough of a population to dust ourselves off, link arms, and become even more powerful for it.  Imagine that.  We survived.

So what good is it to constantly feed the (already) anxious American public that there’s going to be a terrorist attack… soon.  Very soon.  It’s gonna be so soon you might as well start writing out your will now.  boogy boogy boo!!

Nothing.  There is absolutely no use for it besides creating a population of scared rabbits.

So take note from Israelis who are surrounded by enemies on three corners.  Take a note from a country who has never known a day in its history that didn’t have a threat of terrorism.  Do you know what they do?  They go eat at a nice restaurant.  Or have coffee with friends.  Or shop at the mall on Saturdays with their kids.  In all honesty, Israelis have it a lot worse than we do but they’ve learned an important lesson about fighting terrorism:  Don’t be afraid to live.

I wonder how you say “oops!” in Arabic:

Syrian state-run TV and witnesses said Sunday that American helicopters attacked an area close to the Iraqi border zone, killing at least nine people.

Local residents in a Syrian border town said that American forces killed seven men in a helicopter-borne commando attack inside Syrian territory. State-run TV later raised the number of dead to eight.
Doctors in the town of Al-Sukkariya, some eight kilometers from the Iraqi border, said seven corpses and four wounded had been delivered to a nearby clinic after the attack.

An official Syrian spokesman confirmed the attack.

The eyewitness accounts said that four helicopters were involved in the operation, with two of the helicopters landing in the town and eight American soldiers disembarking. The eyewitnesses said that the seven killed men were supposedly construction workers.

Ok, so I think the key here is that reports are coming from the Syrian state-run TV. I’ll keep an eye on this to see how it progresses.

UPDATE:

Holy shit. Interesting that Bush gave the green light on this one. Don’t you think it could have waited till, say, mid-next week?! Can someone smell that “international test” on the horizon?

A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military’s reach.

“We are taking matters into our own hands,” the official told The Associated Press in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

[source: MSNBC]

Here’s a video that should resurrect fond memories for myself and all the fellows veterans who served in Iraq with me. We loved that you protected our asses, C-RAM, but we don’t miss you!

[video]: C-RAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar) neutralizing an insurgent attack.

That’s 3,000 rounds per second hitting those mortar rounds. Yee haw!

*Hafsaka = Break/Recess (Hebrew)