Letters: How the terrorists have changed us
Re “Have the terrorists won?,” Opinion, Aug. 7
We elected Barack Obama as president to be the antidote to George W. Bush. And yet, under this administration:
- Gitmo remains open, despite the president’s campaign promise to close it.
- The government has the “limited” power to target citizens for drone strikes.
- Air travel has reached the tax-audit, root-canal level of dreadfulness.
- The National Security Agency tracks our telephone calls and emails.
- The U.S. Postal Service photographs and logs our mail.
- Police monitor our movements with license-plate readers.
In short, we have destroyed our own way of life. In exchange, we have an illusory safety that may prevent another 9/11 but cannot stop homegrown terror such as the Boston Marathon bombing.
So yes, the terrorists have won.
Kay M. Gilbert
Manhattan Beach
Doyle McManus makes the point that Al Qaeda began, and is returning to, attacks on “outposts of foreign power” in Yemen and other lands far from our shores. McManus is on to something big.
If the outposts are removed, then there will be nothing for the terrorists to attack. Terrorism is a political problem with a political solution, which is to remove the hundreds of U.S. military bases from other people’s countries.
John R. Yates
Los Angeles
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