According to a recent article in Foreign Affairs, the “terrorist” threat to this country at the present time is almost non-existent.

Yes, there was 9/11, and the author, John Mueller, does not shy away from those attacks and the aftermath. He writes:

“On the first page of its founding manifesto, the massively funded Department of Homeland Security intones, “Today’s terrorists can strike at any place, at any time, and with virtually any weapon.”

“But if it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically competent, why have they not done it? Why have they not been sniping at people in shopping centers, collapsing tunnels, poisoning the food supply, cutting electrical lines, derailing trains, blowing up oil pipelines, causing massive traffic jams, or exploiting the countless other vulnerabilities that, according to security experts, could so easily be exploited?”

“One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad. But this explanation is rarely offered.”

Bob Higgs once wrote that fear itself is the “bedrock” of government actions and oppression. If Mueller’s story is to be believed — and I think he makes a very strong case — then in the five years since 9/11, the government has fed us a very steady diet of fear, as opposed to telling the truth. Gee, why I am not surprised?