Posted on 09/17/2001 6:41:09 PM PDT by UnsinkableMollyBrown
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:49:19 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The following is a quote from Orson Scott Card, who was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune and quoted in an article appearing in the September 17, 2001 issue.
"What effect will this have on the American psyche? The same effect such things always have. Temporary unity, followed by temporary exploitation of the crisis to try to advance pre-existing agendas, and finally settling down to find our part in whatever national endeavor our leaders embark on in response to the attack. I only hope that our leaders will actually attempt to lead us toward solving the terrorism problem thoroughly and completely, instead of the kind of measured law-enforcement responses that only make martyrs when they succeed and, when they fail, encourage further attacks.
In addition, our leaders are so busy swatting flies that they ignore the tiger in the room. It is worse than useless to
1) eliminate knives (including plastic) in airport restaurants,
2) ignore airline employees as a weak spot,
3) have four different ID checks in airports - if a false ID passes once, what good does it do to check it again,
4) permit only boarding passengers, not family, at the gate,
5) return to business as usual at the boarders,
6) not re-examine known aliens in the US, legal and illegal, particularly arabs -- profiling be damned!
7) take draconian measures such as giving law enforcement the green light on wire-tapping without a warrant,
8) institute a national id system,
9) have military checkpoints, read near martial law, in New York,
10) not immediately institute armed guards on every flight, or allow passengers to carry.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Like I said, they are busy swatting flies, and they aren't taking the steps that would have a real impact on security in the US. Deport the illegals, now. They know where they are. Deport everyone that is not an American citizen from Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Cuba, Russia, China, and all those other terrorist countries... It is better that their freedom be restricted, than American citizens.
Orson Scott Card, fellow "Mormon" and scintillant observer of the world as usual. Right on, br'er Card.
Let me also add: Which is more "cowardly": To accept certain death in order to destroy as many of the "enemy" as possible (er, don't we usually give out Congressional Medals of Honor to our fighting men who accomplish this feat?) or to stand fifty miles out to sea, or five hundred miles out and 15 miles in the air, and launch cruise missiles in "surgical strikes" that may or may not hit the enemy and may instead hit innocent bystanders?
Sorry if that irritates some, but that's the way we have conducted ourselves in the Middle East up till now. We didn't have the guts (as a nation, I mean) to go into Baghdad and take out that Butcher once and for all, and we are now reaping that bitter harvest I really do think.
In WWII the American people understood that while it was most CERTAINLY better to make the other poor dumb b*st*rd die for his country, we had to accept that we were going to lose some of our sons, brothers and fathers to combat with a determined enemy.
Are we even yet willing to face up to that possibility? Or have we been emasculated by the sh*t-eating leftists of the 60s "Anti-War" (TRANS: Anti-United States) generation, and carefully conditioned to believe that the sight of body bags being laid carefully on the tarmac at Dover AFB is the most horrible thing we can contemplate?
I would hope that the memory of the sight of those towers coming down, carrying THOUSANDS of innocent civilians with them, will trump that, and that we'll understand that some MUST be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, and our leaders MUST be willing to order them to do so.
If we are NOT willing so to do, then my friends, we are NOT WORTHY of the legacy of freedom anyway, and our enemies DESERVE to destroy us!!!!
I say deport the LEGALS as well, who come from these nations, regardless of their religious or political affiliation.
If they are not citizens they are guests, and it is time to go home while we tend to some family business.
Our future survival and the futures of the many nations that rely on the U.S for security,dictates that war is the only option. "Total war", the kind W.T. Sherman advocated.
The fight against terrorism begins at home. All the king's horses and all the king's men can't protect us, and to rely on the government for security in exchange for giving up our rights (witness gun free zones) is akin to playing Russian Roulette with our life.
When we have the 'address' of the perps, we do a drive-by (fly-by). Or we visit a popular well and drop something 'stinky' into it. In either case, we do not concern ourselves with the outcome, as our guiding principle is to merely inflict terror. Nothing more.
I have to admit that the concept is foreign to me and doesn't sit too well with my other insticts, but hey, when in Rome, isn't it a sign of politenes to do as the Romans? Or put another way: shouldn't we dance with the one that 'brung us'?
Here in Freeperdom, there were many voicing strong opposition to the wholesale bombing of Yugoslavia. Great investigation led to evidence of fraudulent claims of genocide, and evidence of drug connections. The same can be said of many sorry conflicts in the past twenty years.
If I didn't know better, I'd think that our leaders have been pulling the same pranks some Romans did to further their own agendas. And we know what happened to the Romans.
But we know that human nature is so much more civilized now, than then.
And by the way, since when have we lived in peace.
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