Fear mongering has been a growth industry in the U.S. since 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. Sometimes our discomfort is an unspoken undercurrent; other times there is no subtlety as the forces of opportunism seek to gorge at a trough flash-flooded with public money. We have seen it in aviation, with, for example, the developer of a sport/business two-seat jet (which has yet to fly) proposing the machine as a “homeland defense interceptor” not long after 9/11.
The American psyche today is scarred by an angst that has never before taken root in home soil. Not that Americans are cowering–far from it, in fact. This sense of agitation about what is to come is driving actions on many fronts that are proving to be immensely expensive, from war overseas to shoring up perceived vulnerabilities at home. Budgets are reeling from these ever deepening efforts to bolster our defenses and run the enemy to ground, and we are now forced to face the reality that no matter how many dollars we throw at security, we can never entirely eliminate threats to our domestic peace and way of life.
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