If by now it isn’t clear that “eco-terrorism” rhetoric has nothing to do with national security, protecting civilians or even the broader “War on Terrorism” how most supporters view it, take a look at the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
John Lewis, the FBI’s top dog on domestic terrorism, has said: “The No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement.” Other top level government officials have said the same, and that rhetoric has worked its way into memos by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
The president talked a lot about terrorism and national security last night, so one would assume that the “number one domestic terrorism threat” would make the cut. Nope. Not even a passing mention. The president does indicate who owns the number two spot, and it’s not “eco-terrorists.” He discussed the threat of “Hezbollah — a group second only to al Qaeda in the American lives it has taken.”
If the president is evaluating terrorists in terms of the threat they pose to human life, which I would say is a pretty fair metric, then even the most militant animal rights and environmental activists probably couldn’t even make the Top 10: those activists have not claimed a single human life.
There’s clearly a disconnect here. Corporations and the politicians that represent them are using the War on Terror to push a political agenda, and silence dissent, but they know good and well that the general public wouldn’t take too kindly to a State of the Union address calling activists “the number one domestic terrorism threat.” The New McCarthyists aren’t ready for that level of scare-mongering. Yet.
But if the “eco-terrorism” rhetoric doesn’t have anything to do with national security, what is it about? Money. (And politics. But most days here in D.C. those two words are interchangeable). To put it another way, it’s about squashing those extremists who challenge the fundamental American ideology that the dollar trumps all (including the environment and animals). This “war” is a culture war. Bush put it crystal clearly last night: “This war is more than a clash of arms — it is a decisive ideological struggle.”