2/1/2002

“…a thirty-seven-page booklet was released by the White House in [February 1] 2002 to accompany the FY [fiscal year] 2003 budget request. Entitled Securing the Homeland, Strengthening the Nation, it not only effectively presented George W. Bush as a wartime president but also provided the rhetorical architecture for the War on Terror as the issue of the century. …’The threat of terrorism,’ wrote the president…’is an inescapable reality of life in the 21st century. It is a permanent condition to which America and the entire world must adjust. The need for homeland security, therefore, is not tied to any specific terrorist threat. Instead, the need for homeland security is tied to the underlying vulnerability of American society and the fact that we can never be sure when or where the next terrorist conspiracy against us will emerge. The events of September 11 were a harsh wake-up call to all citizens, revealing to us the danger we face. Not since World War II have our American values and our way of life been so threatened. The country is now at war, and securing the homeland is a national priority.’ “

 – Ian S. Lustick, Trapped in the War on Terror, Page 103