Director of National Intelligence claims economic and environmental crisis will lead to terrorism, another word for self-defense.

February 12th, 2009, Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence published The Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It's findings probably won't shock you.

The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism. Though we do not know its eventual scale, it already looms as the most serious global economic and financial crisis in decades.

So why exactly is Blair alluding to the 20's and 30's? Well, you guessed it, it ain't Al Quaida. It's class war.

In the 20s and 30s, millions of people worldwide realized that thieves controlled the capitalist system. Their answer? Mass organized demonstrations, revolutions, and a proliferation of Independent Media via self-published newspapers that threatened to tople corrupt power. In Russia, it did. Well, same as now, sometimes chickens do come home to roost. (Sorry Malcolm and Ward, I just couldn't think of a better phrase...)

The Director of National Intelligence is...well...intelligent enough to know that if a robber enters the house of a gun-owner, the thief might not leave alive. Same with bankers who steal from the Treasury and homeowners. Same with a government that sent its children to die overseas. Same with an international public fed up with U.S. Imperialism.

We are sitting on a powder-keg that's sitting on a nuclear weapon that's sitting on anthrax that's sitting on depleted uranium. In short, the United States Government and its capitalist daddies have created conditions that justify violence and many people around the world are ready to explode.

Mr. Blair's assessment of American benevolence extends well beyond mine. He writes:
We are nevertheless in a strong position to shape a world reflecting universal aspirations and values that have motivated Americans since 1776: human rights; the rule of law; liberal market economics and social justice. Whether we can succeed will depend on actions we take here at home—restoring strong economic growth and maintaining our scientific and technological edge and defending ourselves at reasonable cost in dollars without violating our civil liberties. It will also depend on our actions abroad, not only in how we deal with regions, regimes and crises, but also ATA FEB 2009–IC STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD 45 in developing new multilateral systems, formal or informal, for effective international cooperation in trade and finance, in neutralizing extremist groups using terrorism, in controlling the proliferation of WMD, developing codes of conduct for cyberspace and space, and in mitigating and slowing global climate change.

So even though Blair and I strongly disagree about history (get real Blair, in 1776 our forefathers were slave owners and Indian butchers, not social justice--human rights oriented saints), he's right that the best way to combat terrorism is to combat the reasons for terrorism: economic disparity and escalating global climate change. If this unequal economic system continues, the blood of the ruling class will flow. Its happened before when people concentrated (stole) wealth and it will happen again. Oh, and by the way, this shouldn't be called terrorism when it's really self-defense.