The only thing we have to fear is looking too brave

Ratchet Deadlocked Campfire, by weslouie at DeviantArt.

The trial of Sulaiman Abu Gaith on conspiracy to kill Americans, and providing support to Al Qa'eda was held in New York City and came to a successful conclusion, like the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed before it, in spite of fears that—well—something...

In a letter to Obama, Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested that holding a trial in New York was dangerous. “New York City has been a high-priority target since at least the first World Trade Center bombing,” she wrote. “The trial of the most significant terrorist in custody would add to the threat....”

Senator Charles Schumer, of New York, quickly released a statement echoing Bloomberg; the wisdom of moving the trial away from lower Manhattan, he said, was “obvious.” Then, on February 1st, Schumer told the Daily News that he opposed the idea of a 9/11 trial taking place anywhere in New York State....

Senator Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, declared on Fox News that Holder should “step down,” for his inability to make “a distinction” between “terrorists who are flying into Detroit, blowing up planes, and American citizens who are committing a crime.” (Jane Mayer, New Yorker)

The generally calm BooMan flies into a rage at the thought of the damage done by these idiotic fears:

It was a national disgrace, and it's ridiculous that Gitmo is still open five years later. I don't think there is a single issue that has made me more livid during the Obama administration than the way his own party treated him when he tried to close Gitmo. But it's still primarily the Republicans' fault. They created Gitmo and they insisted on turning our country into a nation of bedwetters. Lindsey Graham could single-handedly keep Depend® Adult Diapers in business.

I want only to add that I think it's a mistake to think of Graham, Alexander, or Schumer, or any of these people as being in fact afraid of anything that they claim to be afraid of (let alone Feinstein, famous for her aplomb in the face of being spied on by tiny pink CIA helicopters). They couldn't even spell out what they thought might happen as a consequence of these civilian trials being held on US territory, because it would be too much work. They're afraid, all right, but of other things, above all of not looking frightened enough. Looking frightened, that is, for the Fox and CNN cameras and, in the case of the Republicans, for their rabid, obsessed donors—looking afraid of President Obama and his evil Communist Muslim anti-colonial plans.

The Republicans are like kids around a dying campfire or in a darkened basement for a sleepover, scaring each other with stories of ghosts, axe murderers, spreading plagues, but with a purpose: to frighten the whole population into running away screaming from some mildly progressive policy shifts (not to forget the bond markets thrive on fear). If terrorism is

the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal

then they are terrorists—not committing violent acts but making argumentative use of the violent acts committed by others, or imaginary violent acts if no real ones are available. And the Democrats? Oy, it's so embarrassing.

The goblin is actually Al the Gorilla, mascot of the Syracuse Crunch hockey team.