To start off the silly season, or a war, the State Department issued a Worldwide Travel Alert:
The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to possible risks of travel due to increased terrorist threats.
At the same time the boss of the State Department says he knows of "no specific threat". Local officials also say that there is nothing to fear.
How does that fit? Did the State Department receive a memo headlined:
but it did not inform the Secretary of State?
Or is the U.S. State Department saying that its active support for fundamentalist Islamists over the years, from Afghanistan to Syria, has made the world unsafe?
The chance of getting crushed by your furniture is higher than getting killed in a terror attack. But the State Department warns you of leaving your house:
U.S. citizens should exercise vigilance when in public places or using transportation. Be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid large crowds or crowed places. Exercise particular caution during the holiday season and at holiday festivals or events.
This is not just a "travel alert". It is a walking-down-the-street, going-anywhere-anytime-anyhow alert. "Stay indoors, don't answer your phone, avoid driving and/or walking. Light breathing is fine when you are alone."
What purpose do such alerts have? Cover-your-ass for some bureaucrat? Scare people shitless to then press for ever stronger security laws? Push up military contractor stocks? None of that makes much sense.
I see no sensible reason for such warnings but to prepare the people for war. Push their fears, as unspecific as possible, so far that they will agree to anything to get relief from their fears.
The Turkish military just shot down a Russian jet over Syria and anti-Syrian insurgents capture (vid) a pilot. (correction: was old footage). At the same time the U.S. puppet regime in Ukraine is pushing to renew the conflict there.
Will all this escalate into a new great war?
The State Department also says:
This Travel Alert expires on February 24, 2016.
That's when the war will be over?