I got stopped by the police supposedly for not having my seat belt on.

Just curious, what if you didn't stop for a seat belt violation? would they radio their other officer and chase you down? would they open fire on you, or throw spike strips out and make you crash your car, so they could enforce their safety rules?

Also, a park ranger threatened to cite me for not having a safety vest. He cant' just drive around in his 40,000 SUV and take his 40,000 dollars a year, they need to give us tickets, too, to protect us from drowning, make us wear this ridiculous orange vest around our neck in case we drown like an idiot.

Of course, they carry a gun, because what if you don't put your safety jacket on? What if you insist on drowning yourself? Should they kill you?

The War on Terror is simply an extrapolation on this concept, they need to run you under the tank treads of their military machine in order to protect you, they need to drive the price of gas up to 5 dollars a gallon for freedom, it's all to protect you, they may even have to kill you all the protect America.