Public Comment

Perhaps the worldwide travel alert of possible al-Qaeda threats coming on the heels of mounting public outrage over domestic spying – should come as no surprise. Is this a real or imagined threat? Is the massive NSA spying agency using the terror threats to wage war on our civil liberties? Prior administrations have used terror threats to goad us into disastrous wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The NSA alleges that the terror threats arose from chatter on the Internet. But don’t our enemies adjust their terror activities to thwart our terror alerts? With the credibility of the NSA at an all-time low, the general public is highly skeptical of the true reasons for its recent unprecedented actions. The closures of 19 embassies would clearly suggest that al Qaeda is a growing menace and not “on its last legs” as the Obama administration claims. 

The escalation of drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and more recently in Yemen has clearly intensified the seething hatred of the U.S. and continues to be a major recruitment tool of the growing network of al Qaeda and its affiliates. The BBC recently showed the scarred images of 20 innocent men, women and children from a failed drone strike in Yemen. The hasty retreat of American civilians in Yemen by helicopter is eerily similar to the final withdrawn from Vietnam and is a sad testament to failed U.S. foreign policies.