Making It In America

The greatest fear I have in homeland security right now is the inability of Janet Napolitano to call an act what it is!  If she cannot tell the difference between a man-made disaster and a terrorist act, please President Obama, replace her with someone who can!

On the news today, Napolitano was quoted as saying that she would no longer permit the fear brought by the words terrorist acts be used to frighten us and be used politically.  She then said she would use the term man-made disaster.  I beg to differ, but the dam that breaks is a man-made disaster.  When a crane falls over and causes death because someone did not care for it properly you might say it is a man-made disaster.  The way New Orleans was handled before, during and after Katrina was a man-made disaster.

Purposely blowing up innocent people is not a man-made disaster.  It is an act of terror.  It is a terrorist act.  The act, not the words, is performed to strike terror into the hearts of those affected.  According to dictionary.com, a terrorist is one who terrorizes or frightens others or a political group meant to demoralize the government through the use of terror.  An attack by a terrorist would, therefore, be a terrorist attack.  A man-made disaster, by any other name, would not include terrorism.