America needs 'rest of the story'

It is tragic to watch our once great nation engage in self destruction behavior over domestic terrorist attacks when it refuses to address the core issue of our insecurity.

The underpants bomber episode again demonstrates that even failed attempts threaten further erosion of our privacy rights and make the incumbent administration cave in fear to the war mongers who continually use these incidents to maintain currentl wars and trumpet more war and belligerence on around the world.

Watching the reaction to the current incident, one might think that poor, innocent America has mysteriously been targeted by Islamic extremists for random attacks. No mention whatsoever is made that we have invested over a trillion dollars to conquer and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, are sending bomb-toting drones that kill many innocent civilians along with some imagined bad guys in Pakistan, conger up possible war with Iran over their legitimate and legal right to develop nuclear energy, and now seek to interfere in the political upheaval in Yemen where the underpants bomber was allegedly trained.

The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex has too much invested and too much to gain from ever allowing a rational discussion of why the most primitive of attackers continually probe for weaknesses against the most powerful nation on earth. They have wisely figured out that endless billions for their military ventures of conquest encourages more blowback against American aggression which guarantees them even more military and security resources.

The late, legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey made a fortune with a simple program that told an interesting story that only made sense when he added the real life characters and events surrounding the beginning narrative. Sadly, America will never be safe and never be able to use our precious treasure to rebuild its crumbling economy till we all get "the rest of the story".

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn