This worries me as well. The gun confiscation part is probably the worst problem. I hope that the current plan is only a short term plan (until they develop a better plan that doesn't involve total military control). While I tend to agree with the Bush administration assertion that centralization of command and control makes sense for an avian flu pandemic, and quarantines may be required, I certainly don't agree with instituting federal martial law unless individual cities or states are incompetent. But perhaps I have underestimated that chaos that bird flu might cause. Currently, from bird to human transmission, the mortality rate is about 50%. I can imagine that an uninfected person in a quarantined town might want to fight to get out even if it's not for the better good.
-The administration’s aggressive posture toward Iran, Syria, North Korea and China is “delusional.”
What is delusional about our posture is that we are 'talking' aggressively. We need to back up our words with actions. Enough with referring it to the UNSC and restarting 3-way and 6-way talks. It's silly. When they hear us say "there will be serious consequences", they yawn.
Exactly, what is delusional about talk without any action! We started out dealing with things, not allowing nations to just talk, talk until they complete their weapons of terror, talk until they wear the United States resolve down, talk until the UN can send them more money to fund their flags screaming for our blood. Return to action, especially when those that what to talk are _obvoiusly_ just buying time.
I'm thinking more & more that training rogue nations is just like training children, dogs... When they are going in the wrong direction there must be consequences. More talk (threats of action) is just training them they _can_ get away with their deceit and how to do it better!
Ron Paul hits the nail on the head much more often than he missed.