A Decade Is Only a Blink of an Eye for Empirical Purposes

We have come to what could be seen as the end of an ignominious period in U.S. national security history, one that might be called the Decade of Fear. And though it was the 9/11 attacks that ushered this period in, our response in the months and years afterward defined it far more than those blows ever could. At a moment when the United States could have seen the terrorist threat as being as limited and peripheral, we over-reacted -- grotesquely.

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[W]e allowed our fear to drive the creation of a massive government security apparatus, huge expenditures, and reckless global programs. Compared to the number of people, groups, or weapons systems threatening us, our investment in our response to said threats redefines "disproportionate" in the annals of a government where excess has been a hallmark of our military-industrial complex. And that's saying something.

  David Rothkopf

You might argue that was the whole point. Look at the huge windfall this “Decade of Fear” has provided to companies like Halliburton and Exxon Mobile, and how it has the cups of the banksters overflowing.

If Republican budget cutters on the Hill were not also the biggest of America's fear-mongers, they would be leading their efforts toward fiscal probity by taking scalpels to Defense and chainsaws to the Department of Homeland Security and the Directorate of National Intelligence.

That’s an “if” that’s so large, it can’t even be seen. Like the universe.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.