Friday, 22 January 2010

In Passing

“PR nonsense”

Terrorists? What terrorists? Dept
Ace is tired of it:
I have seen this time and time again, where the first statement, provided mere hours after an incident, when people are still in triage and there has been not enough time to even begin an investigation, let alone conclude one, is the rote repetition of the claim that it’s not terrorism, there is no foreign connection, etc.

And if they’re saying that out of the box, then we know for a fact they are actively avoiding lines of questioning that would contradict that claim...
...
If we’re to have genuine confidence in our government at all (is that still a goal they aspire to?), they need to be straight with us, stop giving us PR nonsense, and admit their failings alongside their trumpeting of their successes.

If they keep claiming that every successful terrorist attack is not terrorism, we have every right to suspect they are not taking this seriously, and that they are covering up their failures, and that they are, of course, not dealing with the lapses that caused the failures, and that more of us will be killed just so they can go up in front of the microphones and make pissing-on-our-backs claims like “There is no evidence this was a terrorist attack.”

What scares the hell out of me isn't that terrorism is being treated as a law enforcement issue.  If only.  That may not be the best possible response to terrorism, but at least it would be barely-adequate response...

What scares me more than that is that terrorism is being treated solely as a public relations issue.


Related:

Elsewhere:  Politico’s coverage

Previously:
January 15, 2010:  Ability is insufficient.
March 20, 2009:  More nuance, please!

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:37:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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