Truth or Gaffe? Biden Admits U.S. Faces No Existential Threat From Terrorism

From declaring Ebola the “largest
epidemic in history” to promoting “shared interest and shared
ideals,”
Vice President Joe Biden was his old platitudinous,
gaffing self at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government
yesterday. But he did—correctly—contradict
his boss, arguing that America faces “no existential threat”
from violent extremism.

The Hill
reports:

Imploring students to keep the threat posed by violent
extremists “in perspective,” Biden said that although the country
must remain vigilant, terrorists did not fundamentally challenge
“our way of life or our security.”

“Let me say it again: We face no existential threat—none—to our
way of life or our ultimate security,” Biden said. “You are twice
as likely to be struck by lightning as you around to be affected by
a terrorist event in the United States.”

And, incidentally, nine
times more likely to be killed by police than by
terrorists.

But Biden’s wellspring of perspicacity quickly ran dry, making
no mention that the greatest threats to the American way of life
can be found right here at home.  The Transportation Security
Administration routinely and
pointlessly violates basic tenets of human decency. The
National Security Administration nonchalantly tramples
on the privacy rights of everyone—including those of its
loudest supporters. Even attending an NFL game these days is an
exercise in intrusive
security theater. All in the name of protecting us from
admittedly unlikely threats. 

Biden also cited responses to past terrorist attacks as a
testimony to American perserverance: 

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston
Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down.
We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line. 

Biden may not have crumbled or faltered, but civil liberties
certainly did.
While many people were busy cheerleading the militarized show of
force in Watertown, Massachusetts, after the Boston Marathon
bombing,
others were appalled at the wholesale abrogation of
constitutionally-protected rights at the hands of armored cops
astride armored vehicles. It took a Ferguson for people
to start questioning if we really need a
chicken in every pot and an
MRAP in every garage.

While ISIS itself might not be an “imminent
threat to every interest we have,” the threat of
ISIS and other chimerical terrorist groups is. Perhaps Biden will
evolve on that issue also. I’m not holding my breath.