Top Officials Shake Fists at Vague Threat

It’s as if we’ve already been attacked, and the last ten years of war never happened.

In response to somewhat vague warnings of a tenth-anniversary terror plot on the United States, security is up in target cities like New York and Washington, DC — and so is official rhetoric.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, in the courtyard of the Pentagon, touted the recent murder of Osama bin Laden as a coup for the CIA, of which he was director until last week. For Panetta, known for making factless, bombastic declarations, the operation made a “very clear point… nobody attacks this country and gets away with it.” He did not comment on the many years, thousands of American lives, and trillions of dollars spent looking for one man.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also rattled her saber, vowing the United States would “always” claim the right to use force against those who attack or are deemed to threaten the country. She gave a speech at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, standing next to a rusted piece of the destroyed World Trade Center.

The recent terror alert is “a continuing reminder of the stakes in our struggle against violent extremism,” Clinton said.

Author: Jeremy Sapienza

Jeremy Sapienza is Senior Editor at Antiwar.com