I reacted most to Bunch's article "Whose Security" because I both agreed and disagreed with her points. I believe that 9/11 and its reverberations throughout our nation have been twisted in ways to support some policies that are less than ideal or acceptable for lots of American citizens as well as foreigners. I couldn't help but think about the TSA scandal with the invasive pat-downs vs. intrusive body scan option that many travelers have to make when flying on airplanes. I have read articles and watched some videos about this new technology and every TSA official and even some randomly sampled people said generally "If it protects us/makes our national security better, then by all means." Who says it makes national security better if we don't even know the long-term effects of radiation sitting on the skin? Plus, I think that unless everyone goes through the scanner or some equally thorough search, they are not much help beyond discouraging terrorists from trying to take bombs or weapons onto planes on the off chance that they might get searched. What is the point of the scanners if you could easily let an armed terrorist go through because you just didn't end up picking him or her for the scanners? Also, national security prioritizes the state over individuals, a fact that these scanners' implementation obviously show - we invade your privacy to ensure all our safety. But when is the fine line between ensuring our protection and overstepping boundaries? I am not a conspiracy-spotter where I think everything the government does is leading us down a slippery slope, but even so we need to be aware of the balance between individual person, citizen or not, and state.
The main point I disagree with Bunch on is America's deteriorating commitment to human rights in wake of 9/11 - by us becoming hyper-aware to these countries where our attackers have their bases, we become more curious about them and in doing so uncover human rights violations that we didn't know existed there. Granted, the way we are going about things might not be the best way, but I think it was a bit strong for her to say that 9/11 has completely shifted our politics inward. It is technically the government's job to protect us, but protecting us doesn't mean a complete tradeoff of individual rights here and abroad - such a thing would be against the principles we were founded on.
No comments:
Post a Comment