12:52 pm
Jack Bauer, White Courtesy Phone Please
You gotta love House Republicans. Why appeal to reason when you can go straight to scare tactics?
Sheesh, all that’s missing is Jack Bauer.
What the GOP seems to be suggesting is FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR.
But that’s just a guess.
Set aside, if you can, the action movie soundtrack and the slick production values.
Set aside — as hard as it may be — that the night vision video of U.S. troops kicking down doors is in all likelihood from Iraq, which as even (most) Republicans now admit, had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
Set aside the questions you may want to ask in return, like “How does torturing people make us safer?” Or “How did Abu Ghraib make us safer?” Or, even better, “How did invading Iraq make us safer?”
Instead, ask the GOP just one question.
Where’s Osama?
Why is it that you can’t show him in the video?
Oh wait, that’s right. You got busy in Iraq and forgot to catch him.
Heckuva job there, GOP.
One other thing: the Democrats have an answer to this stupid, stupid fear-mongering: as many Republicans, including John McCain and Robert Gates, have acknowledged, closing Guantanamo makes us safer because it eliminates one of al Qaeda’s most effective recruiting tools.
But don’t take my word for it. Just listen to that notorious terrorist sympathizer Richard Clarke:
This video and the recent Republican attacks on Guantanamo are more desperate attempts from a demoralized party to politicize national security and the safety of the American people. But what is more disturbing is their brazen use of imagery and the memory of 9/11 to score political points. Thousands of Americans tragically died that day, and for the GOP to think it can win elections by denigrating their memory is disgraceful.
The difference between these Republican videos and the very terrorist propaganda that seeks to damage our society is negligible. Each attempt to stoke the embers of fear in order to disrupt American life. Just as al Qaeda videos should be viewed as misguided rants from a small group of marginalized radicals, so too should these Republican videos be equally dismissed. As opposed to what the GOP thinks, the American people are not that naïve.
(h/t)