Just in case you are not an American, a British citizen or an Australian - or if you take no interest whatsoever in word affairs or maybe if you have just woken up after spending years in a coma - George Bush is the President of America, Tony Blair is the Prime Minister of Britain and John Howard is the Prime Minister of Australia.

These three gentlemen and their coteries of advisors, informers and back-slapping sycophantic political hangers-on have a lot to answer for.

Piece by piece they are systematically eroding and dismantling the freedom that the citizens of these three great nations used to enjoy. More and more draconian legislation is being enacted upon the populations. And it is all being done to "protect" us.

The threat of terrorism is real. However, it is the reason given for almost all the changes and proposed changes to our way of life. Whether they are necessary or not is highly doubtful. We are now subjected to all sorts of "new rules." Police and security forces now have sweeping new laws - shoot to kill being one of the more heinous of them. We saw that recently in Britain where an unarmed man was shot and killed by mistake.

A more "subtle" example is that we are now no longer allowed to take all manner of innocent items onto airplanes. In reality, even the humble pen or pencil could become a weapon in the hands of a trained assassin. So I guess we should brace ourselves for them to be banned at some time into the future too. Perhaps, one day we might all be required to travel devoid of any possessions whatsoever, and nude. That would be interesting.

The paranoia at airports now has to be seen to be believed. Say the wrong words within earshot of an over-zealous security person and you will be hauled into a room for questioning.

Bush, Blair and Howard, in typical politician practice, continually manipulate the truth. They make all sorts of promises to get elected and re-elected then, once the gullible public votes them into office, they set about formulating their own agendas "for the greater good."

Once elected, all sorts of reasons are offered as to why the promises that got them there cannot and will not be fulfilled. But the prime reason is always the same - terrorism. It has become a convenient catch-all excuse to enact whatever restrictions are deemed appropriate to control and limit our freedom even further.

You would be surprised how many times you are photographed and filmed during the course of a single day in our cities. To catch the bad guys, who are almost always known to the authorities anyway, everybody has to be subjected to invasive intrusions into our privacy.

The public is becoming increasingly cynical but it makes no difference. Nothing changes until another election looms in the future.

Politicians and their "minders" have developed tactics to take the spotlight off their dismal performances. They have latched onto the fact that people who are frightened are far easier to manipulate and control. And they want to been seen to be actively protecting us - for our own good, of course. So, the master puppeteers manipulate us. In Australia, you can now be detained and questioned by police for taking photographs of public buildings. What a crime!

Keeping the population under fear is the second plank of control for career politicians. The first plank is to keep people poor by continually raising taxes, charges, utility costs and forever increasing the amount of compliance that people are required, by law, to conform to. Taking money away from people has become an art form.

Controlling populations is as simple as that. "Keep 'em poor and keep 'em scared."

So, is it any wonder that politicians the world over are spreading the propaganda of terrorism? Issuing endless warnings is a tactical ploy to keep us "on our toes." The fear is heightened when a "new" terrorist edict is made. A scratchy home video from the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan is like manna from heaven to our politicians. It is all they need to be able to turn the screws even tighter on us.

Both sides want us to live in fear - not just the real terrorists but our political masters as well. They want us to be scared. They want us to be afraid. And the politicians want us to know that they are the only ones who can save us.

To prove my point just observe what happens when the next political furore looks like turning nasty for the ruling party. You guessed it - terrorism is brought to the forefront, yet again. It always takes the spotlight off the issue at hand so the blundering politicians can bunker down and go into damage control mode.

Bush, Blair and Howard are masters of manipulation. They are all clones of each other. Most of what they tell us in our "hour of need" is later proved to be incorrect - like Saddam Hussein's infamous cache of weapons of mass destruction. They still haven't been found.

Watch the "big three" speak. They all have that very concerned "I'm here to save you" look, they continuously move their heads suspiciously from side to side as though waiting for somebody with an AK47 to enter the press room, they punctuate their diatribes liberally with comments like "the threat is very real" and they deflect or dismiss any pointed question with comments about "national security."

Like I said, terrorism is real. The Twin Towers, the London bombings, the Bali bombings and other events around the world have proven that. However, terrorism has also become the weapon of choice for our western politicians.

"Keep 'em poor and keep 'em scared." It is a proven formula of success.

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