Not a whole lot of people will recall that the reason this country first went to Southeast Asia in increasing numbers in the 1960s was so we wouldn’t have to fight the creeping threat of communism right here in our own country. There was this idea called the “Domino Theory” that said if one country fell to communism in Southeast Asia so would another and another until, lo and behold, the creeping evil would be at our doorstep in no time! With that being the mantra, little by little, we ended up having millions of soldiers serve in Vietnam, 48,000 of which died there along with 10,000 non-combatant Americans. Our wounded totaled 150,000 and to this day approximately 1,600 Americans are still unaccounted for from that decade long war.

Now, over 40 years since we pulled out of Vietnam, we’re essentially in a 25-year war in Iraq (remember: the Gulf War started in 1991) that we can’t seem to get out of. We’re back because it’s now radical Muslims instead of communists that are on our doorstep or soon will be if we don’t take care of them “over there.” Today, we use the word “homeland” as in “homeland security.” From Vietnam Syndrome to Gulf War Syndrome to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, it seems there is always somebody we must fight “over there” to keep from having to fight them here, in the homeland.

Based on the urgency that our enemies are allegedly knocking on our door, we have basically consented to eavesdropping, snooping, wire taps, curtailment of civil rights and government overreach in our desire to be secure as a nation. We don’t even care if we’re lied to as long as we think the lies benefit our unquenchable thirst for security. While we will get downright niggling about money and how our government spends it in America, our security addiction results in us signing off on trillions to be spent “over there.” After all, if we don’t we’ll be fighting them you know where.

Then Ebola arrives. It isn’t at the door … it’s in the parlor.

The secret NSA surveillance program didn’t see it coming … couldn’t see it coming. Ebola doesn’t e-mail, make telephone calls, or visit subversive websites. Homeland Security was caught napping, as were the other 15 or so intelligence gathering agencies that make up our government. There wasn’t any “chatter” or threats on terrorist websites. That isn’t the way a virus operates. The enemy that got in came not from Iran, North Korea, Iraq or ISIS or any other terrorist cell. It came by and large from Liberia, an African republic perhaps best known for its alliance with the United States through a ship registry program that was started in 1948. There are nearly 4,000 ships on the world’s oceans that sail under Liberian registry.

The Brothers Grimm had a fairy tale that only partially applies to America. It seems there was a man who didn’t know what fear was. Because this fellow couldn’t shudder, he put himself in all kinds of dangerous situations to experience fear but never felt it. When he lifts an enchantment that has been placed on a castle – he does so fearlessly, without shuddering the least bit – the king offers his daughter’s hand to the courageous man. Great, the hero says, but I still don’t know what it’s like to shudder. The man without fear marries the king’s daughter but constantly complains to her that he never shudders.

One night in bed the man’s wife snatches the cover off him and pours a bucket of cold water and tiny fish on the man. He learned to shudder.

The hero in the fairy tale isn’t synonymous with America; we shudder at everything even though we don’t like to think of ourselves in those terms. We believe that the only way not to fear is to pound our enemies to pieces “over there” and with more intelligence gathering, sophisticated weaponry, firepower and trillions more dollars we’ll be secure.

That bucket of cold water? That’s Ebola.

Bob Morgan is a retired, award-winning journalist and author.