Posted on 12/09/2006 7:09:31 PM PST by Valin
Unconquerable Nation
Instead of surrendering our liberties in the name of security, we must embrace liberty as the source and sustenance of our security.
CHAPTER ONE How We Prevail: Secret Service agents gunned down the first team of assassins before they got to the President, but it was a close call. A second team of gunmen managed to get into the House of Representatives, where they wounded five congressmen. A terrorist bomb caused damage but no casualties at the Senate. Troops took up positions at the Capitol and the White House, both of which had been set ablaze. By sundown, Washington was sliding out of control; columns of black smoke could be seen for miles. Authorities were unable to save the White House, which was completely destroyed by fire.
In New York City, a huge vehicle bomb exploded on Wall Street, killing 33 people and wounding more than 400. Another bomb exploded in downtown Los Angeles, killing at least 20. Yet another bomb killed and maimed hundreds in the heartland. An explosion leveled a Texas town, while fires destroyed most of Chicago and San Francisco.
That was not as bad, however, as an inexplicable deadly epidemic that hit the nation’s capital in the summer. By autumn, onetenth of the city’s population had died. Similar deadly outbreaks swept across the country. Nationwide, 1 in 200 Americans died. Cities announced their own blockades against those fleeing the stricken areas. The fabric of society was unraveling with riots and looting.
Following riots, the Army patrolled the streets in Washington, Detroit, and Los Angeles; 120,000 people were interned as potential subversives. The worst crisis, however, was the receipt of a credible nuclear threat.
All this is not some hypothetical future terrorist scenario invented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to test preparedness, the screenplay for a new Hollywood disaster thriller, or a survivalist fantasy. All of the events listed above, in fact, occurred during the course of America’s history. In 1950, assassins tried to rush Blair House, where President Truman was staying while renovations were under way at the White House. In 1954, terrorists opened fire on the House of Representatives. A bomb caused heavy damage to the Senate in 1983. And British troops burned down the White House and part of the newly constructed Capitol building in 1814, when only a rainstorm saved the rest of Washington.
A horse-drawn cart filled with explosives (an early vehicle bomb) blew up on Wall Street in 1920, and suspected members of the Dynamite Conspiracy set off a huge bomb in Los Angeles in 1910. Timothy McVeigh’s bomb killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995. In 1947, a ship loaded with nitrate fertilizer blew up, leveling Texas City. The city of Chicago was destroyed by fire in 1871. San Francisco was destroyed by fire following the 1906 earthquake. In 1793, yellow fever killed 5,000 people, one-tenth of the total population of Philadelphia, which at the time was the nation’s capital. Subsequent yellow fever and cholera outbreaks killed thousands in American cities during the nineteenth century, but none of these outbreaks compared with the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918–1919, which killed approximately 600,000 people in the United States and between 25 and 50 million worldwide. Race riots required calling out the National Guard and federal troops in a number of cities in the second half of the twentieth century. I personally watched the columns of smoke through a train window as the train pulled out of Union Station in Washington, DC, on April 14, 1968, at the beginning of the widespread race riots following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. During World War II, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were interned.
The most terrifying incident of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, occurred in 1962, when the two superpowers stood nose to nose, armed forces on high alert on both sides, nuclear weapons at the ready.
America’s Dark Moments
There have been many dark moments in America’s history. Almost everyone’s short list includes the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001; the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II; the Civil War; the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression; the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Most Americans would also include the burning of the nation’s capital by British troops in 1814, the Chicago fire, the Johnstown flood, the San Francisco earthquake, and the Spanish flu and other epidemics. Loss of life is the common element in all these crises.
For a nation seen by many in the world as bellicose, Americans themselves see the casualties of war as disaster. The Civil War, in which 558,000 died, tops the list, followed by World War II with 407,000 Americans dead, World War I with 117,000 U.S. deaths, the Vietnam War with 58,000 Americans dead, and the Korean War with 37,000 Americans dead.
And whatever criticism we may heap upon our presidents while they are in office, we are angered and dismayed when they are physically attacked. We also include poverty and suffering among our darkest historical moments. Noteworthy are the events that represent the lack or loss of values: slavery and continuing racial discrimination, the annihilation and dispossession of native Americans, the ruthless suppression of striking workers in the nineteenth century, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the “witch hunts” for communists in the 1950s, the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
The singling out of these events as America’s dark moments reflects the values Americans hold dear: life, the inalienable rights of all people, equal justice for all, security in its broadest sense, fair play, political morality. Just as noteworthy are the omissions. Americans do not dwell much on abstract issues such as past humiliations (including those in Vietnam and Iran), perceived insults to national honor, challenges to the nation’s rightful place in the world, assaults upon our religious beliefs and moral values. These are the types of concerns voiced by our terrorist adversaries.
It is also noteworthy that Americans view the nation’s dark moments as summons to courage, opportunities to reflect and to do what is right. Each dark moment is seen as a challenge, awful at the time, but ultimately met—not a descent into darkness. As the United States faces a new array of threats that arose at the end of the Cold War and were so stunningly clarified on September 11, 2001, Americans are again summoned to demonstrate courage, to draw upon deep traditions of determination in the face of risk, to show self-reliance and resiliency.
There has been too much fearmongering since 9/11. We are not a nation of victims cowering under the kitchen table. We cannot expect protection against all risk. Too many Americans have died defending liberty for us to easily surrender it now to terror. We should heed the admonition that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered in his 1933 inaugural address: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” It should not be fear that propels us, but confidence that we will ultimately prevail. We have never been driven forward by fear. At our best, we have been defined by our visions.
Strategy for an Unconquerable Nation
The title of this book is Unconquerable Nation. The phrase derives from a quote by the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, who 25 centuries ago wrote, “Being unconquerable lies with yourself. The choice of this title does not signal an attempt to apply the principles of Sun Tzu’s ancient treatise on the art of war to the current war on terrorism. Sun Tzu’s passages tend to be abstract, cryptic, sometimes opaque, and therefore subject to continuous interpretation, which may, in part, explain their enduring appeal. Sun Tzu offers inspiration, not precise instructions. His philosophy of war is straightforward. Warfare, which had by the 5th century B.C. become a large-scale enterprise, requires popular support and proper strategy. That strategy must be based on a thorough understanding of the enemy and of one’s own strengths and weaknesses. “Being unconquerable” means knowing oneself, but as understood by the ancient strategists, “knowing” means much more than the mere acquisition of knowledge. “Knowing oneself” means preserving one’s spirit, a broad term. “Being unconquerable” includes not only disciplined troops and strong walls, but also confidence, courage, commitment—the opposite of terror and fear.
One can easily see the appeal of this construct in the context of current circumstances. This philosophy alters Americans’ mental model of today’s conflict. It elevates the necessity of knowing the enemy, something we have not made sufficient effort to do. It moves us from relying almost exclusively on the projection of military power and viewing homeland security as physical protection to mobilizing our spirit, courage, and commitment. While we strive to destroy our terrorist enemies by reducing their capabilities, thwarting their plans, frustrating their strategy, and crushing their spirit, we must also rely on our own psychological strength to defeat the terror they would create. Instead of issuing constant warnings and alarms, we must project stoicism and resolve. Instead of surrendering our liberties in the name of security, we must embrace liberty as the source and sustenance of our security
I will not say that the book "Unconquerable Nation Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves" is a MUST READ. I will however say it is well worth your time and money.
Ping
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FREEDOM Lost =
It COULD all happen HERE:
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
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Thank you for your input. I will give it all the consideration it merits.
Too bad, only five.
...we must also rely on our own psychological strength to defeat the terror they would create. Instead of issuing constant warnings and alarms, we must project stoicism and resolve. Instead of surrendering our liberties in the name of security, we must embrace liberty as the source and sustenance of our security
About time something other than defeatist mush got out there. Thank you for the post.
You mean we're not DOOMED! Darn, and here I've stocked up on ramen noodles and salted nut rolls for nothing. :-)
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It is also noteworthy that Americans view the nation’s dark moments as summons to courage, opportunities to reflect and to do what is right....
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Only when facing the external enemy is more important than destroying the Bush Adminstration, which happened for a few weeks after 9/11. All too soon, destroying Bush has resumed as the only focus of the left. All other threats are secondary at best. None other than the new Speaker of the House has said that Iraq is a "sitution", and insists it has nothing to do with the Islamist War, as if cutting and running would not invite further trouble for the US, its interests and allies.
What dangerous and pitiful fools.
Salted nut rolls, huh? (Good stuff!)
Yeah! That's it!(8^D)
How do they make the comparison between something like Pearl Harbor or the San Francisco fire, and rounding up a bunch of potential spies and saboteurs during WWII, the Japanese, and putting them safely out of harm's way?
I guess I don't know what you mean.
He kind of lost me when he talked about Commie "witch-hunts" being a dark moment. We were smarter (and except for black people) freer then. And, as Ann Coulter loves to repeat in "Treason" "Were there Communists in the State Departmnt?" (Check Verona tapes for answer.)
"The Islamist War" I like that. However Islamism weather Sunni or Shia is not in the mainstream of Islamic thought, or the way your average Muslim lives their life.
From the Rand corporation which brought us the freedom stealing and nation deconstructing concept of 'homeland security'? From the Rand corporation who also recieves many many millions in federal dollars to implement homeland security policies?
Thats rich!
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