by Heather Watkins

Created on: September 12, 2007

While many Americans may feel safer since 9-11 due to the large number of new laws and security measures passed, the safety is merely superficial. Indeed, many of these ridiculous measures have been nothing more than placebo effects...unless of course you truly feel that bringing shampoo on a plane and giving the government access to just about all of your private information is in fact keeping you safe.

Since the attacks occurred, the US has embarked on its so-called War On Terror, which has included attacking and invading a sovereign nation that had not attacked us first. This action in itself caused most of the countries in the word to lower their opinions of the United States and its foreign policy. Those that supported us before have now turned away in anger over our military's actions and our president's repeated claims that our course of action was necessary, and in fact still is. Our worldwide opinion is down, probably lower than it had ever been, and yet the President still continues on his mission regardless. Seems a bit strange, since if we ever need support, many of the nations that formerly supported us and would have jumped to our aid will now have to sit and consider.

In fact, this seems nearly backwards when you consider that terrorist actions are not carried out by any one nation in particular. America hasn't even fulfilled its mission to get rid of Osama Bin Laden, so how can American citizens be confident of its anti-terrorism measures? 9-11 was six years ago, and rather than capturing the man we deem responsible for it, we're wasting billions of dollars trying to make Iraq into a democratic nation.

The Patriot Act is another example of useless legislation passed in response to the attacks. Government agencies can now access every citizens private information after any transaction. This seems more than a little like an invasion of privacy. Furthermore, if a terrorist chooses to make an attack, I highly doubt that any government in the world could stop it outright. That's the thing about terrorism, it comes from individuals with the ability to change their plans. Therefore, all the security measures in the world won't stop someone determined enough to make it happen.

The fear-mongering implemented by the US government recently has been shameful. You can barely turn on the news without a "Terror Alert" warning running across the bottom of your screen. All the different codes and colors do nothing but instill terror into the hearts of the American public, causing racism and prejudice against Arabs to skyrocket. What exactly are we supposed to do if the Terror Alert is red? Is it anything different from when it's yellow? Or is it anything at all?

The bravado and arrogance of the United States in the wake of the 9-11 tragedy has been showcased and encouraged by our government. We are supposed to trust a regime that cannot even guarantee our security, instead issuing colored alerts to the public? In my mind, we're a prime target for another attack.

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