The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place.

Or is that how I am supposed to react to every news report from the Middle East and other nefarious hot beds of terror dotted around the world? Are such reports and incidents designed to provoke a sense of unease and fear within me, that will ensure I sign up to the war on terror? Perhaps, perhaps…

Take today’s news for instance that Iran and Syria have announced a “defence pact” in response to threats they perceive to be coming from Washington.

In a world where the USA continuously bears its teeth, this action strikes me as logical, if wholly regrettable.

It is an animal instinct to react to threats of violence in such a way, no?

Like a cat raising its fur or the rattle and hiss of a snake – if you provoke such a beast you can expect a reaction. So why the surprise then that this has occurred?

Why the collective shrieks of horror? Are governments genuinely riled by such events? Are they genuinely concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region? If so, how scared are they of Israel I wonder, whose nuclear programme has long been a public “secret”?

It makes no sense to me. Save for the fact that it is convenient for them to create a bogeyman. To manufacture a sense of terror and to stoke the fires of fear.

The truly terrifying thing about such an approach is that in the end we may not recognise the enemy when he finally arrives.

Like the boy who cried wolf, each proclamation from the White House, or the Foreign Office, brings with it a strange mix of deja vu and a growing nonchalance that mingles with this general feeling of fear and unease. A growing angst that we cannot attribute to any particular source, to any particular enemy.

We just sense something is wrong because our governments tell us it is. Trust us they say. We will protect you from the wolf at the door.

I wonder….I wonder.