I read the ad and have an additional take, which is that at least it constitutes a call in the direction of sanity, an appeal to Bush's gang to get real. I do agree that the visual was an unfortunate choice.

Anyway, I applaud your post mightily, Steve. All too rarely these days do we see people in or near the corridors of power utter such clear common sense as you did here:

"Doing what we can as a nation to deal with grievances and to remove incentives from the rest of the world to "target" us seems like a far more effective strategy...."

That so many people in this country have come to believe that we can somehow be more secure by making the rest of the world despise us is truly a stunning achievement by the fearmongering propagandists running this country.

Seems to me the goal of terrorism is to terrorize -- to make people afraid. And when a nation sucumbs to fear, it's a victory for the terrorists. When leaders exploit or enflame fears, aren't they aiding the terrorists?

fear = compliance

i'll be damned if i succumb to a mental state governed by fear... if you look at the single common thread that connects everything the bush administration touches or everything that has touched the bush administration, it is fear - terror, spying, bird flu, sars, fema's disaster response failure, wmd, gay marriage, fear of criticism, fear of not being a "patriot..." on and on it goes and, as strategies go, it has been phenomenally successful... if the bush administration has its way, we will be engaged in an endless war and will have to remain hyper-vigilant (fearful) forever while bush and his gang continue to consolidate power... they tipped their hand when they discussed the possible suspension or postponement of the 2004 elections in case of a terrorist attack... it's not about protecting the american people, it's about power and power's handmaidens, money and control...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

Wow. This is America? It looks like one of those fear-mongering ads for home security systems.

I hate to be so indelicate about this, but I'll just say it: A significant majority of signatories of this document are very old people. Warren Rudman, Lee Hamilton, Howard Baker, Warren Christopher, Slade Gorton, Gary Hart, Nancy Kassebaum Baker, Thomas Kean, Robert McFarlane, Sam Nunn, Ted Sorensen? These folks are ancient. They represent a generation of Americans who are often afraid even to answer the door or drive to the market, much less engage with foreigners and their countries.

Even the star imagery, no doubt intended to convey some sort of national unity, is disturbing. It shows a blue mama star on the left and a red papa star on the right, with arms locked in fearful union, while the baby star cowers in its bosom. The star is white, as are most of the people in the image - particularly the balding, middle-aged guy in the middle of the scope. I think I espy a black guy in the peripheral northeast corner of the image, in the vicinity of New York and Pennsylvania. However, no people of color are featured in the heart of the blurry image. Of course not - people of color are something else that older, white Americans are afraid of.

I hope this is not a symbol of things to come. The politics of the retired, at its best, is marked by a wise concern with fundamentals and an experienced eye on the long view. At its worst, though, it exploits excessive concern with security, racial fear, and a selfish tendency to shut the doors of national excellence behind the retired generation, now that that generation has passed through them.

If America loses its image as open, welcoming and optimistic country, it is is going to lose what is left of its scientific and technological edge. I for one vote "no fear" and "no lockdown."

The...sky...is...falling! Usama is coming, Usama is coming, be afraid! Hamas, Hamas, be afraid be so very afraid! Terrorists to the right of me, terrorists to the left of me, send in the NSA! Knee-jerk, be a jerk, who owns the book of love? Iran and the nuclear option, evidence? We don't need no stinking evidence! Therefore a bipartisan illusion is pure delusion and it's war and more war that will save us!
God, it's good to kill those that do not think like us!

well now, it looks like some of the war-hawk establishment are publicly criticizing the bush-cheney war-hawk narrative

it certainly took them long enough

i wonder how many of them prefer the john mc cain's version of the war-hawk narrative

Maybe it's fear-based BECAUSE of the bipartisan representation, i.e., the repubs see it as an effective way to get attention and the dems went along with it. It is discouraging though, especially as you note Steve the limited and potentially ineffective means by which they think security will be reestablished. I would think a more comprehensive approach to security - including increased but legal surveillance of potential terror groups, locking down explosives with taggents, etc, and working more with the international community would be key points. This emphasis on CBRN hazards is overblown in comparison to the every-day capabilities currently possible by terrorist groups. Also, there is a standard ICS for emergency responders, it's just a matter of the local/state cops and firefighters exercising and being familiar with it.

I'm listening to you at this conference.

I am sorry that I _ever_ contacted you before.

Be ashamed of yourself.

Be very, very ashamed.

Idiots, Charlatans and Warmongers.

OK, the Hudson Institute guy and the one after that (who couldn't understand why the Chinese were cracking down so viciously, and who wholeheartedly seemed to endorse the $$ -leads-to-> democracy plutocrat's lie) but the guy after was a bit more reasonable.

THIS is what we've come to?

I'm so ashamed of America- the world's superpower, a population that has more in the way of material goods and security than any other country in the world, and look at us. Cowering in fear. Reveling in fear, in fact.

I hate to think how we would react if we had to go through something like the London blitz, for god's sake. Can you imagine all these bedwetters and pantspissers if actual bombs were dropping on us night after night (like they are in say, oh, Iraq)?

We'd have us a police state before the next daybreak.

Steve, you are spot-on in your perspective here. There is no way on earth a determined terrorist can be prevented from attacking, short of an iron-bound police state--and that would be vulnerable, too. Let's also consider the magnitude of a potential attack: the World Trade Center collapse was horrific, but it was NOT like Pearl Harbor, to which GWB referred. A bunch of lunatics in 4 airliners is NOT the equivalent of wave after wave of Japanese bombers and a naval armada at sea. Perspective, please; the physical threat from terrorism is nowhere near the threat we faced from the Soviet Union in all the years of the cold war. But the fear campaign, as you say, serves very well those who profit from it. Exxon this morning reports 10 billion in PROFIT, not revenue.....

This fearmongering reminds me of Squealer in Orwell's Animal Farm, manipulating language and massaging fear.

The goal of the 9/11 attacks was to put terror into the hearts of Americans. The imagery in this ad just sustains that terror. Terrified people make bad decisions, take rash actions, and make mistakes. I'm saddened to see some very sensible people subscribed.

The first instinct of Americans in crisis is to stand behind the President. If these people want a different, competent security policy, they shouldn't be driving people into that reaction.

You are looking at the kitchen cabinet/advisors of the mythical Hillary Clinton '08 campaign/presidency.

A bunch of rich old white folks make an ad with a target on "white folks". Notice there are no black folk in the ad. Note that the target is centered on a wheatfield near Topeka, Kansas.

It would have made a lot more sense to move the target a little further south and east (As in New Orleans) and put the target on the poor and the black that are indeed the dangerously vulnerable of American Society and Republican Plantation economics. Replace the picture of rich white folk with poor blacks stuck at the Superdome and that would be an ad sure to be refused publication by the NYT.

Who thinks that poor folk will see any of the money supposedly spent on New Orleans but in reality spent on no-bid corporate welfare contracts? The real danger is a corrupt administration squandering our resources by lining the pockets of its sugar daddies and failing to help those who truly need help.

Just watched The New America Foundation Conference on C-Span3. Thank you Steve! That was perfection!

Transcript of General Clark's speech:

"REAL STATE OF THE UNION 2006"

http://securingamerica.com/node/560

Bravo, Steve.

Some of those signors have professional reputations to protect, in this world game of foreign policy. This Ad definitley buys into the big scare syndrome and reinforces the GOP psycho-conditioning process. It's part of our Pavlocracy.

We, the people, should resist the Madison Avenue, conditioning techinques, being used on us by the current occupant of the Oval Office and his Stepford Staff. What color is our threat code today,, folks?

WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY?

OHMYGAWD, THAT AD IS APPAULING!!!

Let the media wars begin

The one thing Karl has no effective control over - zilch - is the timing of his enemies, political and otherwise. There are so many different - and I mean separate - efforts underway right now at upstaging the White House's bombast. On top of that, there's so much else going on a national level this week - Alito, Enron, Helicopter Bernanke - headline competition is gonna be fierce for that five-foot ape in the Oval Office, no doubt.

Everyone is sending their own torpedoes in and nobody knows if anybody hit anything until the dust has settled and the post-mortems are out in a couple of days or perhaps next week even.

In the anarchic global media space, everybody's having their shot at the news cycle - from ethical realists and terrorist hunters to the terrorists themselves, everyone's in on the act with their version of the State of the Union™, pre-empting Karl's efforts at stagecraft and 'framing the issues'.

Duh.

So what is the Real™ State of the Union™?

I guess I'm with Lewis Gould on this one: at the risk of being scoffed at as a finger-wagging stickler, I'm all for another grassroots effort at media literacy. We just don't have enough of those.

I'd say let's peek behind the curtain of this abominable charade - and reflect on the media and its role in society while the hysteria is about to reach peak volume.

Btw, excellent conference, Steve. Congratulations.