This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4527

Napolitano's "Culture of Preparedness" Looking in all the Wrong Places

September 14, 2010

September 14, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Quoted as a panel member of an anti-terrorism forum on CNN Sunday, Janet Napolitano again demonstrated the illogic she has brought to the Dept. of Homeland Security. Of course since she merely jumps to her bosses' string pulling, the real blame lies at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, but the point remains.

On Sunday she said, "...One of the things we have been focused on is really getting preparation for and the ability to respond to threats of any kind...Well, it means that, first of all, it's more dispersed. Secondly, you know, a big conspiracy, you have opportunities to intercept, to hear about, to learn about ahead of time. When you have individuals or small groups, that's much more difficult. And thirdly, our ability to collect intelligence is much more limited when U.S. persons are involved than, say, internationally. And so, you know, there are all kinds of different things that go into play. And I think what Michael said is right. We're not talking about huge numbers all across the country, but what we are talking about is an ever-evolving threat that has not kept the United States immune. There are U.S. persons now involved. And that means the Department of Homeland Security itself has had to evolve." [source, CNN transcripts September 12, 2010, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1009/12/sotu.01.html]

There are two major defects in the Obama/Napolitano approach.

1. The relative ease with which a conspiracy can be uncovered is less dependent on its size and far more a condition of looking in the right place for its existence in the first place.

Since its inception this administration has as a matter of dogma refused to connect the most obvious of dots, that the conspiratorial mindset occurs in only one group, religious in nature and foreign in origin. It does not exist in equal parts spread across the spectrum of society but is located within very specific confines.

Operating in this manner invokes a process which lies at the core of the governmental/bureaucratic mindset, a self-defeating illogic, designed so as to be unable to discriminate between a threat and a non-threat.

In this brand of bureaucratese, if a method relies upon ascertaining who might be the "obvious and usual suspects," then it is fatally flawed as relying on methods which are definitionally racist and/or Islamophobic.

2. Additionally, predicating a policy on a "culture of preparedness," reeks of reaction after the fact, of stressing an ability to quickly clean up the mess after it happens. In the face of a biological or nuclear threat, this is an outright admission of failure, that it can't be prevented, thus dooming Americans to absorb whatever damage ensues. This is of course unacceptable.

This administration has painted itself into an ideological corner; tying its hands. In its refusal to admit that terrorism in the modern context is an Islamic phenomenon, it is forced to look elsewhere, a policy so foolish that it could only make sense in the seat of governmental power.

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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4527