Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak
I responded "Thats the dumbest thing anyone will hear all day. Americans have a long history of being victims of terrorism in and out of the country. Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Tim McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Al-Qaeda (1993 WTC), the Beruit Embassy bombing, etc all pre-dated Bush's policies. To suggest that terrorism is some sort of new, Bush-induced phenomenon is flat out wrong."
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In a sense, the student was right. Terrorism was not a major concern because we didn't have a history of attacks beyond a few isolated incidents. Our response to terrorism threats during the Bush years was completely overreaction. The right wingers played on the fears of a population that was vulnerable after 9/11 and wanted to make terrorists the reason to bring back the hawkish policies that had faded away after the cold war.