THE BIOLOGICAL RUBICON: What happened last week? And how should we respond?

Andrew Sullivan.com ^ | 10/22/01 | Andrew Sullivan

[Clinton's a rapist]

What happened in America this past week is epochal.

Exactly. We have crossed the threshold into the abyss of biological warfare -- or rather they, the Islamic supremacists, have crossed that threshold. This will not end until Muslims know what it felt like to be German or Japanese at the end of World War II.

[CatoRenasci]

Once we know from whence the anthrax came, if it be a foreign power, we shall have no choice but to unlease the awful power of nuclear war upon that country. No living surviors within its boundries. And to those who cavail, we should then turn and say, would you like to be next?

[michaelt]

Thanks for posting this.

And to think, Sullivan wrote this before the latest anthrax deaths. If the toll spreads, he may be righter than he thinks.

[Snuffington]

bump

[Notforprophet]

Good post. GWB and this crisis = the toll of the bell for the Left.

[ScholarWarrior]

Re; Germans & Japanese.
I respectfully disagree.
This is not war. It is genocide.
So be it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[Clinton's a rapist]

Once we know from whence the anthrax came, if it be a foreign power, we shall have no choice but to unlease the awful power of nuclear war upon that country.

Understand, the anthrax campaign has one purpose. When we come to deal with Saddam, the real author of 9/11, we will find ourselves with a knife at our collective throat. I think we might as well get used to that idea now.

Then again, we could cancel visas and deport the people who are going to be wielding that knife. But, I agree, that would be a hate crime, and it's much more noble for us to lie back and accept that we have been out-maneuvered.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Once we know from whence the anthrax came, if it be a foreign power, we shall have no choice but to unlease the awful power of nuclear war upon that country.

I really don't see much of an alternative....

It has always been our doctrine to respond to unconventional weapons with unconventionaly weapons. The djinni is out of the bottle.

I am not a 'chicken little' type and I never have been. However, should we respond to this attack conventionally once 'state involvement' is proven, I will fear for the survival of this nation.

Are we going to change our own doctrine and weasel out of it?

[harpseal]

Re your #3 - Very well said.

At this point Iraq is the primary suspect and I have no compunctions about the use of thermo nuclear weapons against them or any other nation that supports them. They have talked the talk for years let them now walk the walk of death. As a side benefit the oil fields themselves need no be harmed they would be useful to annex. If any nation complains they could easily be next. The die is cast not by us but by them.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Steve_Seattle]

"Americans crossed a Rubicon this week."

I watched Dan Rather on the evening of September 11th, and he appeared to be genuinely shocked by what had happened. I think it opened his eyes to what conservatives have always known, that there are people in the world who don't think like us, who hate us, and who present a real threat to our country, our government, our institutions, our way of life, and our freedoms.

[mxbluto]

No living surviors within its boundries

YOU are whacked my friend!

[mxbluto]

Ok, I'll revise. YOU'RE ALL WHACKED.

You want to barbeque millions of innocents in revenge for a couple of our people. How is anybody supposed to take you seriously?

[hadit2here]

And it's sad to think that this had to be written by a Brit. He's got more b@lls, mental acuity and intelligence than all those lamestream media pu$$ies and leftist, nazi/socialist/fascist idiots in the beltway, put together.

It's about time that the blue areas woke up and found out that they have been led down the primrose path of kumbaya, "can't we all get along" and other inanities.

Unfortunately, I can't see where our "goobermint" is going to do anything but use this as an excuse to tighten its stranglehold on any small remaining freedoms we had left. After we wade into the rest of the world and exterminate the vermin and turn them to glowing sand, then we need to turn to whomever is left and say "Don't even think about it or you're next!". Then the citizens of the US of A need to take back our freedoms and restore the Constitutional Republic that has been consistently destroyed for the last 40 years.

[rant off]

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

I share the desire for retaliation, but I do not understand why people are talking about "going nuclear." It seems to me that a bio-war attack should be met with a bio-war response -- less danger to the environment, plus the ability to more selectively target the Bad Guys while reducing risk to non-combatants. And, of course, the oil fields would be undamaged.

If we are going to have to kill these people, what does it really matter whether it's a bullet, a spore, or an atomic fireball?

[Cogadh na Sith]

Suggest an alternative that will prevent future bio-war incidents.

How can we possibly respond to unconventional weapons with conventional weapons without sending the unmistakeable signal that we believe that we no longer deserve to exist as a nation?

How can your repond 'proportionally' to bio-war?

[motexva]

While both the perpertrators of the anthrax attacks and their state sponsors must be harshly punished, your odd suggestion that we engage in some sort of nuclear genocide is not constructive. There are a variety of reasons:

1) Most of the people you would kill are probably secular Moslims with no idea what anthrax or even a bacterium is.

2) There are weapons in the US arsenal just as destructive as nuclear weapons with none of the political/psychological baggage.

3) Large scale use of nuclear weapons would create large fallout clouds that would endanger friend and foe alike.

A brutal display of force is certainly called for, and whatever government sponsored this must be removed from power. Then the hard work begins - creation of pro-West democratic republics in these former bastions of Islamic totalitarianism.

Would that it was that easy, to nuke our problems out of existence.

[mxbluto]

How can your repond 'proportionally' to bio-war?

I think that this talk is very sensationalist. Three people have been killed with an 'unconventional' weapon. We've had plenty more 'collateral damage'. Who cares how you title killing, this is turning into a bloodlust.

You should know this. You DO NOT want a nuclear war. Those who think you do are fooling yourselves.

[Cogadh na Sith]

1) Most of the people you would kill are probably secular Moslims with no idea what anthrax or even a bacterium is.

So what? The postal workers weren't microbiologists either...

2) There are weapons in the US arsenal just as destructive as nuclear weapons with none of the political/psychological baggage.

Name one.

3) Large scale use of nuclear weapons would create large fallout clouds that would endanger friend and foe alike.

No. The bombs are a lot 'cleaner' now and don't produce as much isotopes from the reaction. Besides, before they'd be used, there are all kinds of weather and wind pattern analysis to avoid just such a thing.

How can a nation respond 'proportionally' to a bio-attack?