Despite all the hoopla, this anthrax seems to be a rather crude and low level attack unless there is a lot more here than meets the eye.
I'll save my "freaking out" for after the report confiming the first case of smallpox anywhere in this country. That problem will quickly spin out of control and be a civilization-changing event, at least as far as we are concerned.
It's obvious that someone wants to frighten us, kill us, and destroy the USA. It is just as obvious that anthrax won't do the job.
After the WTC, anthrax was their second-best effort. The poor job they have done with anthrax shows us their limitations.
If this hypothesis is true (and so far it seems to fit all known facts very well), then it should be comforting to know that the sky is not falling, we can survive this attack. A little bit of prudence will go a long way.
Smallpox is a much, much greater worry, however.
I would love to have the opprotunity to ask one of the "experts" if, since there have been so few deaths, could it possibly be that we are only noticing and testing for it now because of 9/11. Couldn't it be that many deaths attributed to the flu in years past were actually anthrax, but since no one was testing for it, it went unoticed?
That may be a dumb idea, but I would like to know.
What are we doing successfully to interrupt the enemy in his distribution of anthrax? Sure, the number of deaths from this weapon is small, but when and how do we expect to make him stop? If at all?
What would we do to counter any one of the smallpox virus aerosol distribution schemes? The enemy could distribute the virus and disappear into the woodwork--how would we stop him? How would we catch him or discover him? What would we do to keep large numbers of people from being infected by smallpox or to keep infected individuals from communicating the desease to others? It is likely to happen so expect it.
There are other bad bugs out there: Plague; ebola to name two. The residential water supply is vunerable to poisens. What plan have you heard that anticipates practical attacks and prevents them; responds; or aprehends the perps? At every point, we are late, slow, and unprepared.
The military attack is not producing results. My own view is that Bin Laden is no longer in Afghanistan. Although I do not believe he is the principal decision maker, he is a top general; maybe part of the command group. The military effort may simply come to an unsuccessful end because we are not able to mount an effective effort during the winter or because our allies keep us from continuing the effort during the holy days; we may fail because having killed a number of Bin Laden's soldiers, we wake up to realize that we have not in any way affected his ability to wage war on us.
From a secular point of view, our leaders are not smart enough; thoughtful enough; or prepared enough to protect the national interest and save the Republic. They are driven by a number of political considerations that interfere with their objective. We need to secure our borders; deal with the enemy within; and formulate a more robust military strategy to respond to the enemy without. At some point, I suspect when the enemy demonstrates that he can inflict another major domestic defeat without cost or retribution, the political constituency will wake up to the fact that the present US government cannot do anything about this enemy.
The analysis that we have turned away from God is probably too long for this location. However a nation that turns away from God loses the blessing of His protection and very bad things happen to it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain--turn on your local TV station anytime--you will hear God's name more often in vain that you hear it in your local Church. Honor the Sabbath--for purposes of worshipping the National Football league at the local shoping mall? Thou shalt not commit adultry--extra marital relationships are the national norm. Thou shalt not bear false witness? Listen to the excuses for the false witness of our recent president. Don't steal? It's so commonplace the cops don't respond any more. That shalt not covet--our national system of taxation is the institutionalization of covetous conduct (the political justification for the progressive rate system). Man shall not lie with a man as with a women for it is an abomination to the Lord? We engage in all kinds of conduct that does not amount to righteousness as described by God. Honor God in the modern USA? We pray to Him but anyone who suggests that He is really who He says He is and means what He tells us is viewed as having less than all of their normal mental capacity.
When we pray to God that He bless our nation, we need to ask ourselves why He would do that. When Israel turned its face from God, He permitted Nebuchadnezzar to destroy their country. Why should the US expect anything else?
We have a clue. It's the Islamofascists, using anthrax provided by Iraq. It's just that our government either so far lacks conclusive proof of this, or finds it prudent not to go public with this proof at the moment when our troops are fighting in Afghanistan.