BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Season Three of Homeland might debut in September on Showtime, but on CNN, MSNBC, Fox and all of the other networks, Homeland season three debuted last night.

Talk about reality and fantasy merging together.

Some might have thought that the television series starring Damian Lewis and Clare Danes and the always entertaining Mandy Pantinkin had already jumped the shark.

Nobody cared about terrorism any more. Like American Idol, the best days of the Emmy-winning show were already in the past.

Well, terrorism is now front and center again. And now it seems like the show is coming back to the television screen six months early. Except this show is all too real.

Our Homeland has been attacked by terrorists who specifically wanted to kill Americans in the most dramatic way, and what better way than at the conclusion of the Boston Marathon.

Last night, around the beginning of Happy Hour, the FBI released surveillance tapes that probably didn’t make our terrorists very happy.

They were seen jauntily marching down the street, getting ready to launch their brand of mayhem.

It was weird.  You could see the face of these killers and they looked like they didn’t have a care in the world. They didn’t act nervous. They weren’t sweaty.   They certain didn’t act like Brody, when he tried to blow up his suicide vest in the middle of Season 2 (or was that Season 1).

They seemed like they were having fun.

Well, it wasn’t very much fun for the folks who were their victims. That’s what makes this whole event so chilling. The killers had no appreciation for the lives they were about snuff out.

By 10:30 last night, the news was breaking that the terrorists were found and in the middle of a gun fight. In fact, somebody uploaded the whole damn video live on Skype and the world was watching. Well, at least that part of the world that was still awake. (I was in bed, trying to go to sleep, which is not easy when you know that there is a terrorist loose).

Apparently, the Skype guy was so close to the action that his bedroom had been shot up in the crossfire. And yet, he still had the presence of mind to hold his iPad overhead and capture the entire event on television.

That is either incredibly stupid or incredibly brave. I myself think it is stupid. There were real bullets involved in this fight, and that is not anything to be trifled with.

But this younger generation seems to be fearless when it comes being in the middle of the gun action, fearless or desensitized.

For many people, they see this kind of thing on television all the time and my guess is that when it happens in real life, they are more intrigued than terrified.

The Chechen President blamed American for creating the monsters that were born in Chechnya and then terrorized Boston. Here is what he said: “Any attempts to link Chechnya and the Tsarnaevs, if indeed they are guilty, are futile. They grew up in the USA, their viewpoints and beliefs were formed there. You must look for the roots of [their] evil in America. Terrorism must be fought everywhere. We know this better than anyone. We wish all the victims a [speedy] recovery and share in Americans’ grief.”

Blaming America for this kind of terrorist attack is pretty rich, coming from the guy who currently is in charge in one of the most violent regions in the world.

I can guarantee you one thing. It will be a helluva lot harder for anybody from Chechnya to immigrate to America than it has been before. You think that Customs officials gave you a hard time before? It is going to get a whole lot harder, methinks.

The whole fight in Chechnya has nothing to do with us. It is not our fight. Our official policy is to stay out of it.

These Chechen rebels might think it is a good thing to get us involved. Believe me, it  is not. We have drones and we will use them. Often. It won’t be pretty.

So keep us out of your fight with the Russians. And keep your terrorists at home. We can send them a few DVD’s of seasons 1 and 2 of Homeland, if that will keep them busy.

Editor’s Note: John Feehery worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. Feehery is president of Quinn Gillespie Communications. He is a contributor to The Hill’s Pundits Blog and blogs at thefeeherytheory.com.