Here's a good link on the alarmist tendencies of some factions in the foreign policy establishment:
 The Threat Mongers Handbook
I refer to the threatmongers as the bedwetters, becuase they are always seem to be running around and pissing themselves over any minor thing.  It also highly correlates to a willingess to scrap all civil liberties in response to any slight theoretical increase in security (even if there is no actual increase).  They typically support torture and other practices unworthy of a free and proud people.

I'm sure there are some domestic versions of this around; my favorites are on the subject of "security theater"
which is government doing a bunch of stuff that doesn't actually do a damn thing to make people safer or more secure, but it is doing "something" and is visible, so they can point to there efforts and say "look how hard we're working to make you safe!"  And typically, the BS secuirty measures never go away. 
Here are some good links from the same author of the main article:

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/goldberg_and_wallraff.php

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/security_theater_now_in_improv.php

thoughts, examples, disagreements, snark?