Domestic events such as September 11^th have the immense power of changing our lives to be led by fear. Our actions therefore, are direct consequences of our insecurities and unease. Likewise, our government’s assumption that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons was an “imagined threat.” This “imagined” or “manufactured” threat (as it seems to have been) gave them the power, amidst a thick cloud of domestic anxiety, to hastily invade the Middle East. The way in which our nation is governed should not be so easily shaped by fear. Fear invokes both power to those in control, and weakness to those who follow, even if both are subjected. This is why an imagined threat is so significant

James Madison acknowledged this danger as a Founding Father. He felt that “Our reactions to ‘imagined threats’ (Manufactured Threats) from abroad will pose the most serious threats to future National Security. Madison knew the importance of leading a government by a moral compass rather than by an emergency map of fear. Madison would clearly demand that we as a society not let our lives become dominated by fear, and not support a government that utilizes these fears to justify injudicious actions. In times of war especially, Madison would agree, the United States, as such an immense superpower, needs a government whose actions are clearly grounded in fact and not by alleged threats. Most often, these threats come from a group or nation that is distant from the subjected country; an unknown threat without limits our boundaries garners much higher levels of power. Our founding fathers knew best: If we allow our society to be sheep, herded by fear and those who have the power to create it, National Security and the wellbeing of our nation will be greatly Jeopardized.

Many argue that it is of utmost importance that the government use its power to protect the United States and further National Security. They also state that government deception plays a key role in protecting the well being of this nation. Sacrificing the individual rights of society set fourth by the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution is justifiable in their eyes, for national security is our nation’s foremost concern. This approach to domestic policy, however, is strictly Machiavellian and embodies no moral values. The ends of our endeavors overseas are the only conclusions that could possible justify our nation’s hasty actions, ends that are far too utopian and unobtainable.

Tactics of coercion and government deception leave our country devoid of the morals and values upon which our country was founded. There is no order, no solid ground to stand on, amidst this style of strategic deception. If our international policies were founded upon commonly shared vales, or moral codes, consent would come naturally, and would not have to be manufactured by the government to move the society in one direction or the other. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, a process is only justified when both process and product are of ethic and moral decency. Our country must move forward with its international endeavors by means of a solid moral compass to guide us on our way.