Never forget what the dems think of our military.
Posted on 01/31/2002 9:30:02 AM PST by RCW2001
In a speech laying out the Bush administration's justification for proposing a $48 billion increase in the 2003 defense budget, Rumsfeld said the nation is vulnerable to new forms of terrorism ranging from cyberattacks to attacks on U.S. military bases abroad to ballistic missile attacks on American cities.
"Our job is to close off as many of those avenues of potential attack as is possible," he said in a speech at the National Defense University.
His remarks coincided with new indications that terrorists have considered a range of possible attacks. The FBI warned on Wednesday that al-Qaida terrorists may have been studying American dams and water-supply systems in preparation for new attacks. And in a report to Congress made public Wednesday, CIA Director George Tenet said rudimentary diagrams of nuclear weapons were found in a suspected al-Qaida safehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan. Other evidence uncovered in Afghanistan includes diagrams of American nuclear power plants, although it is unclear if an attack was planned.
Rumsfeld said there could be no doubt that in the years ahead the American people will be faced with an attacker as unconventional and unpredictable as the hijackers who killed more than 3,000 people by flying airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
He warned of new adversaries who may strike in unexpected ways with weapons of increasing range and power. He appeared to be referring to ballistic missiles, a weapon the administration fears countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq could either use against America or sell to terrorist groups.
"These attacks could grow vastly more deadly than those we suffered" on Sept. 11, he said.
The speech made a case for spending more money on a wide range of weapons and other military programs, although Rumsfeld mentioned no specific amounts of spending for individual programs.
He made a pitch for deploying defenses against ballistic missiles to guard against the possibility that American and allied cities could be held hostage to "nuclear blackmail." And he said new earth-penetrating weapons could make obsolete the deep underground bunkers where terrorists hide.
He said the war in Afghanistan has shown the effectiveness of some new military technologies that past administrations failed to develop in sufficient numbers. He cited the example of unmanned aircraft such as the Predator, which provides live TV images of the battlefield but is in short supply.
He also mentioned a shortage of manned reconnaissance and surveillance planes, command and control aircraft like the Air Force's AWACS plane, chemical and biological defense equipment and certain types of special operations forces.
Rumsfeld cited specific lessons learned from the Afghan campaign:
- Wars in the 21st century will increasingly require all elements of national power - not just the military. They will require that economic, diplomatic, financial, law enforcement and intelligence capabilities work together.
- The ability of military forces to communicate and operate seamlessly on the battlefield will be critical to success. He noted the success of U.S. special forces on the ground in Afghanistan communicating target information to pilots of Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps strike aircraft.
- Wars must be fought by "coalitions of the willing" - they should not be fought by committee. The United States has taken the lead in the war in Afghanistan, not allowing coalition partners to determine the mission.
- Defending the United States requires prevention and sometimes pre-emption. Rumsfeld has said many times that the Sept. 11 attacks showed that it is impossible to defend against every possible threat in every place at every conceivable time. He cited the old saying that the best defense is a good offense.
AP-ES-01-31-02 1320EST
For all of X42's constant anxiety over his "legacy" over the last couple years, he doesn't have a clue just how bad it will one day be. Forty years from now, when Clinton is as old as Reagan is now, when the events of most of the first half of the 21st century are able to be interpreted in terms of the actions taken during the end of the 20th, Bill Clinton (and Hillary!) are going to be despised on a level that makes Nixon look like Lincoln. Just imagine: Every few DAYS some new tidbit drips out about how the Clinton Administration screwed up on Osama, or sucked up to Enron/Global Crossing/et al, violated this ethical rule, made that mistake ... and soon the tell-all books will start coming out. And eventually the library will open, and all the documents will be made public. And there will probably be at least some "Clinton tapes" just like there were Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon tapes. Over the years, this will all add up, and there will be plenty of historians to sew it all together.
And at that point, no number of Carvilles and Begalas will ever be able to spin away the reality.
Aw, Ditter, don't think of it that way. Remember: For all the horrible things that happened on 9/11, the attacks only hurt or killed 0.00125% of the population of the United States. The chances of you, or any member of your family, ever being directly or indirectly affected by terrorism, are essentially nil, especially since you're well into the Southwest. Nobody's lives outside of Manhattan or Washington have even really changed any.
Besides, no matter what, the worst case scenario of the War on Terrorism is still a damn sight better than the Mutually Assured Destruction we were all expecting at any moment up until 1991 or so.
Nukes. China has a few, and could take out some West Coast cities, but in doing so, their would be guaranteeing their wholesale destruction from border to border. They'd be lucky to have 10 million people left after we retaliated, and certainly no government or military.
How in the heck do you get ready for a nuclear attack, Dog?
We should have massive Civil Defense preparedness going on RIGHT NOW! Every community in this country should be setting up shelters, stocking them with food and water, just as happened in the 50's and 60's.
I hope the Freedom Corps is going to be doing that and is a way to do it without causeing undo alarm because PANIC will only make things worse. But we MUST get about this hard work NOW - and not dilly dally....
Not all have the ability to dig shelters and not all have the sense to purchase the needed tablets that would help some survive the radiation from a nuclear attack. Some can do this. The elite politicos will have their shelters and tunnels. The rest of us are dogmeat (excuse me, D) without a cogent, sensible, cheerful even, effort to put shelters up all over the country. We CAN DO THIS even if we just start now. The Russians were prepared - still are - for a nuclear attack. We are not.
This takes me back emotionally to just post Sept. 11th when things looked so bleak and hopeless for a short time.....
President Bush and Sec Def Cheney have looked into the eyes of the dragon and they SEE what danger we are in.
They are doing their best to prepare us to fight for our survival - and the President's earnest but upbeat personality and personal courage are inspiring millions to the same.
But make no mistake, they carry the huge burden every day of knowing what the dangers are. Now, let's roll up our sleeves, get the Civil Defense effort going.....If we know we are working instead of just sitting here like ducks ...it will help everyone's mental toughness.
Wouldn't it be something if millions of Americans shut off their television sets every night and got out to their community centers where CD effort was underway - and got to work getting the supplies loaded and onsite all around their communities in the sturdiest buildings/basements available - and then got the word out to residents of these stocked locations - and then encouraged individuals who could afford it to prepare their own homes leaving the community shelters for those who could not????? (I know, or would not). There is much we can do - let's get going!
Never forget what the dems think of our military.
Y2K was a practice drill; it went well for me. So far as BLOAT goes, I take it you're not a Great Dane owner [or owned by one, as the case may be....]
-archy-/-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.