Paranoia ✓

Prologue: Patient Zero

It all started when the towers fell. The smoke and ash from the collapse spread forth a miasmic fog across the United States. Along with the collapse was the destruction of the idea of American invincibility. No longer were we the aggressors, we were the victims. I think what really threw us off was the lack of a perpetrator to pin the blame on. Sure there was Al Qaeda, but they were a people with no nation. They were clustered mainly in the Middle East, but their influence spread across various countries. We couldn't just randomly bomb the entire Middle East.

But we sure came close with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq supposedly ended three months after it started in 2003, and Afghanistan supposedly ended after 13 long years in 2014; but American troops in both nations continued to train local militias to handle the terrorist threat and provided minimal support. A war, to me at least, is over when I see my troops back home.

Then there was Syria in 2020. It took us a while to enter this one. Maybe we were scared since the Russians had already committed to the conflict and no one wanted to start World War III. That war was supposed to have ended in 2023, but we still have troops occupying various regions in Syria keeping in check the dwindling ISIS.

Then in 2023 a new terrorist group popped up in Yemen. They called themselves the Kabish after the holy Kaaba in Mecca, the most sacred building in all of Islam. Muslims are instructed to pray facing towards Mecca as part of the Five Pillars of Faith. It is the Kaaba in Mecca to which they face and pray. Many consider it the House of God—like the Temple was to the Jews.

There were other groups in between 2001 and 2023, but these three main groups get all of the attention in the media. If you ask me, the media is helping these terrorist organizations by giving them free advertisement over the air. One time I remember watching a nightly news program that reported a new propaganda video by the Kabish and how they threatened to target Los Angeles. The news showed about a minute of the six minute clip, but dutifully informed their viewers that they would not be showing the whole video as it may cause people to be brainwashed by this animalistic mating call. Yet the segment only lit a spark that ignited the fires of curiosity in many of its viewers, who naturally went online to view the entire video. The Kabish won over a few stragglers that day.

However, the goal of this paper is not to criticize the terrorists—far from it. Through the eyes of primary sources and eyewitness testimonies (many told through a condensed secondary retelling), the hope of the writer is to show how American fear has not only strengthened the terrorists, but also destroyed the American way of life. What defines America is its liberties. Take those liberties away and the idea of a nation characterized by freedom disappears. With each liberty we surrender to combat terrorism, we are chipping away at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Privacy has been destroyed to keep tabs on terrorists. Speech has been curbed to prevent the spreading of extremist ideology. A fair trial-by-jury barely exists if you're considered a terrorist (and don't even get me started on cruel and unusual punishment). Paranoia has cost us our privileges that the patriots fought for during the American Revolution. Soon liberty will be but a concept rather than a reality.