America, Home of the Scared?

Alan Caruba
October 30, 2001


There hasn't been a day lately when the news media has not screamed "Anthrax!" at us. Then there's the Attorney General announcing some new threat, but neglecting to tell anyone what it might be. Everyone is nervous. Anthrax has become the Mother of all Scare Campaigns the US has ever experienced.

I'm betting that we're looking at the Unabomber scenario all over again. One lone nut having a great time killing people, mixing up a new batch of the stuff in the basement, and watching the news fulltime. The FBI looked for the Unabomber for seventeen years in all the wrong places until Ted Kaczynski's brother turned him in.

I founded The National Anxiety Center in 1990 because spreading anxiety was already a well-established industry, maintained fulltime by environmental organizations forever telling us that the earth was doomed, the water was undrinkable, the ozone was disappearing, the forests were disappearing, urban sprawl was destroying all the open space, every species was endangered, ad infinitum. Their colleagues in this endeavor were and are the print and broadcast media of this nation.

Earlier this year, we were told the rights of suckerfish took precedence of the rights of farmers in the Klamath Valley of Oregon and California. Previously, we were told that the rights of a Spotted Owl took precedence over the entire timber industry in the northwest. We are still being told that the welfare of a few Caribou take precedence over access to 16 billion barrels of oil in Alaska.

We've been told that an infinitesimal about of arsenic in our water is such a threat we have to invest billions to reduce it still further. We are supposed to believe this even though Americans consume 110 million gallons of water every day without any evidence of a health risk.

If we weren't being assaulted by Green lies, we heard from yet another group, the so-called consumer advocates, who told us that everything we ate was dangerous whether it was movie house popcorn or Chinese food. We were told we would get brain cancer from the wires that transmit electricity to our homes and workplaces or from using our cell phones. Even playgrounds, we were informed, were horribly dangerous for children.

We've been under attack by the animal rights lunatics who would forbid us from having a pet dog, cat, bird or fish. No circuses. No rodeos. No zoos. These terrorists have been attacking university and commercial laboratories where the quest for cures to disease have suffered grievous losses.

Hardly a day has gone by without being told about breast cancer, prostrate cancer, skin cancer or some other cancer. President Nixon declared "war" on cancer in the 1970's and it would appear that this war has been painfully slow in delivering on its promise. Most certainly, the war on illegal drugs has been a losing proposition.

Now we are in a new war and this one is fought by terrorists. What is all this talk about no "collateral damage" all about? In all wars, people in and out of uniform die. The Nazis perfected attacking cities, not just by bombing them, but with missiles toward the end of WWII. Saddam gassed some of his own population in northern Iraq without any declaration of war. He neglected to tell the Kuwaitis he intended to take over their nation. Previously he had been at war for eight years with Iran. The guy is known to have been developing biological and nuclear weapons for years. Let's kill him, too.

We have been viciously attacked without cause in the heart of New York City and the Pentagon. Someone is trying to spread Anthrax as a weapon of war. What is the response? Let's stop them, but let's not hurt anyone. Meanwhile, there are news reports of Muslims who cannot wait to get on the next bus to Afghanistan fast enough to fight and die for Islam! It is time to get angry enough to want to kill as many of them as possible until killing us becomes a very bad idea.

A whole generation of Americans has been brainwashed to want to fight wars without casualties. It can't be done. If you want the military to wage war on those who want to kill you, not only do we want to kill as many of the enemy as possible, but some of our own will die in the process. This is the oldest lesson of war. Worse, we are trying to fight this new war with a feminized military where the men are more fearful of some soldier or sailor in skirts charging sexual harassment than they are of an armed enemy.

In short, we have become a nation of wimps and sissies, afraid of everything because we have been deluged for decades with warnings, warnings and more warnings that everything we eat, drink and breathe will kill us. I have some news for you, the average life expectancy of Americans has actually increased-again-to 77 years of age. We are not dying like flies, we are living longer than ever.

On September 11th thousands of Americans who were at war with no one died in dastardly and cowardly acts perpetrated by Arab Muslims, mostly from Saudi Arabia. So what was the first response to this? A plea that we understand that Islam is a "peace loving" religion and that we not, heaven forbid, "profile" Arabs as potentially terrorists. This is complete and utter rubbish.

There are some 1,209 mosques in America attended by an estimated 2.8 million Muslims. In 2000, the imams who led the prayers in these mosques were all foreign nationals. Some have already returned to their homes to denounce the United States. One of them is doing life in jail for being involved with the first attempt to bomb the World Trade Center. These mosques have been the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars sent to support Islamic terrorist organizations.

We have no real idea how many Muslims are here illegally. We need to find them, round them up, and deport them. If they are engaged in terrorist activities, we need to put them in jail for a very long time. As for the Arabs and other Muslims here as tourists or on student visas, send them home now. Too bad if it disrupts their plans.

Time for this nation to get over being the home of the scared and get back to being the home of the brave. We are at war!


Alan Caruba is the author of "A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam",available from the website of The National Anxiety Center. He writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", also posted on the site. The Center is a clearinghouse for information about scare campaigns designed to influence public opinion and policy.
Copyright © Alan Caruba, 2001
First North American Serial Rights only.
Permission to publish is granted.

The National Anxiety Center
9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, NJ 07040
(973) 763-6392 ~ www.anxietycenter.com

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31 oct 2001