Photo by: current.com

Last week, a federal judge ordered the release of 17 wrongly imprisoned Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, and Maryland police acknowledged putting 53 people on state and federal terrorists list because of their opposition to the Iraq War and the death penalty. At the same time, the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain asserted that its opponent for the presidency "pals around with" unrepentant terrorists.

What do those news events have in common? In each case, public officials used the specter of terrorism to accrue power, even though none of those targeted actually threaten the safety of Americans.

Islamic terrorism is an existential threat to the United States: the spread of technology and knowledge, most particularly about biological weapons, is fast enabling small groups of disaffected people to slaughter millions. But when the McCain campaign vaguely notes that Barack Obama has "ties to unrepentant terrorists," it purposefully muddies the distinction between a leftist radical who bombed government buildings as a young man in the Vietnam era and a suicidal death cult that today threatens our very way of life.

This isn't to say that the long ago deeds of Bill Ayres aren't despicable, or that having failed to repent he should be accepted into polite society. Insofar as Barack Obama abetted Ayres' social standing, criticizing Obama is fair. But the McCain campaign has exploited the fact that Bill Ayres was a terrorist to imply that their opponent is sympathetic to our enemies in the War on Terror, a campaign tactic so irresponsible that even GOP partisans should forcefully denounce it, and for a reason that hasn't anything to do with fairness.

The conventional case against the McCain campaign's tactics is that they stoke the most dangerous impulses of certain anti-Obama partisans. A black contender for the presidency cannot help but make us subconsciously fearful of an assassination attempt. The YouTube clips of McCain/Palin rallies, where mere mention of Obama's name provokes cries of "kill him," "terrorist," and "treason," make those fears conscious. "It’s a big leap from hateful talking points and shouted epithets to vigilantism and the lone gunman," George Packer writes. "What’s undeniably true is that Republican rallies and the incendiary language of party leaders are stirring up the darker, destructive mob passions that have a long history in American politics."

John McCain now seems to regret stirring up xenophobia. Recently, he told understandably confused supporters that they shouldn't fear an Obama presidency. There is, however, another kind of damage done by his campaign's attacks that are less remarked upon and cannot be undone. Forget the few crazies who now think Senator Obama is a terrorist sympathizer. Instead, consider the many Americans who've just witnessed a prominent Republican Senator and staunch advocate for the War on Terror cry wolf in the most cynical way.

It couldn't come at a worse time. Due to the excesses of the Bush Administration, the overreach of various law enforcement officials, and now the scare tactics employed by the McCain campaign, many Americans find themselves 7 years from the attacks on the World Trade Center increasingly convinced that any invocation of the word "terrorist" is a cynical attempt to accrue political power by way of exploiting fear in the electorate.

This is particularly maddening to those of us anxious to remind our fellow citizens that despite the Bush Administration's misleading language about the connection between Iraq and terrorism, the pointless airport security enhancements that make us no safer than before, the subset of Guantanamo inmates held for years despite their innocence, and the attempt of GOP partisans to label their political opponents sympathetic to terrorists, terrorism remains a serious threat.