Why Should We Believe You?

Don't you find it interesting that, at a time when the president is experiencing the worst approval ratings of any president in 50 years, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says that he has a "gut feeling" that we're due for another round of terrorist attacks in this country?

This at the exact time when the president is fighting Congress over funding for (and, by extension, control of) the war?

Do you find the timing as suspicious as I do?

An AP story says that Chertoff "based his assessment on earlier patterns of terrorists in Europe and intelligence he would not disclose."

Warnings based on intelligence he would not disclose. Something bad might happen and I know this but I'm not going to tell you how I know -- you'd just better do whatever I tell you to do.

Haven't we heard this song before? Many times? When this administration wants to get its way and can't find another method of doing so they just cry out that the sky is falling until they get their way.

And of course, if by some mischance there is a terrorist attack this summer or fall, what will it signify, as Trollope would say? That they were right all along in warning us about the potential threat? Or that they were just incompetent to stop it?

Tom Moran