Science & Tech Quote by Cindy Sheehan

Fear is the most renewable resource in American politics, and Cindy Sheehan names the supply chain. The quote works because it compresses half a century of enemy-making into a blunt, almost conversational pattern: first "Communists", now "Terrorists". The rhyme isn’t linguistic so much as institutional. Labels change, the machinery doesn’t.

Sheehan’s intent is accusatory but also diagnostic. She’s not arguing that threats are imaginary; she’s arguing that threat is useful. By framing the shift as a generational swap, she points to a continuity that outlives any specific conflict: a permanent posture of readiness that needs a permanent antagonist. The repetition of "always" is doing heavy lifting here, turning policy into habit, even addiction.

The subtext is grief sharpened into critique. Sheehan rose to prominence after her son was killed in Iraq, and that biography haunts the line about "bombs, guns, and bullets". It’s deliberately unspecific - "and everything" - because the point isn’t one weapon system or one war. It’s the ecosystem: defense contractors, political incentives, media cycles, and the psychological comfort of a clear villain.

Context matters because "terrorists" is post-9/11 language: elastic enough to stretch across countries, timelines, and legal boundaries. Sheehan is flagging how that elasticity enables endless war. The quote lands by refusing grand theory and sticking to a plainspoken moral arithmetic: if fear must be fed, someone will always volunteer to be the feeder.