Posted on 07/06/2004 7:56:48 AM PDT by quidnunc
Almost daily we are assured that another attack on the homeland, commensurate with 9/11, is inevitable. What a scary mood of fatalism we are in! Where will it happen? The Olympics? The party conventions this summer? A week before the election? Chicago? L.A.?
Our experts weighed in over the 4th of July weekend and seemed to disagree only over the method of the mass murder to come. Will it be chemical, biological, radiological, or involve hijacked planes, car bombs, or waves of suicide terrorists? We talk endlessly about "they" without ever specifying exactly who "they" really are who are planning to butcher us at home. So in between our summer fare of televised beheadings, Michael Moore's latest pseudomentary, and Alfred Knopf novels about killing George Bush, we sit waiting, waiting, waiting.
While we speculate idly about the nature of the attack to come, and the inability of our homeland-security forces to stop it, very few talk about what we should do post-facto if the promised disaster actually transpires. This is a surprising lapse if one believes an understood response helps in advance to create deterrence.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
VDH and VP DC are probably talking - and GW likes the plan.
"This is a surprising lapse if one believes an understood response helps in advance to create deterrence."
Announce to the world that we will nuke Mecca if another 911 happens. We give them fair warning and if they bring this on themselves they have only themselves to blame.
IIRC, it was a matter of days before they were doing that at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq campaign.
Christiane Amanpour is Iranian, by the way.
You are right, I doubt we have the national will to do what is necessary to defeat this enemy. The Left has so emasculated the American body politic that I doubt we will ever again (well, at least in my lifetime: I am in my 50s) develop the brass danglers that we will need to win this war on our culture and our civilization. The Left in America actually hopes we will lose such a conflict.
Moreover, such a message has absolutely been sent privately to certain parties - the sitting governments of Iran and Syria at a minimum, and such government as may care in Lebanon. It is these who are tops on the likely list of formal state support for terrorism. One message that does not need to be sent is that the last two occupants of the top of the list, Afghanistan and Iraq, no longer are. That speaks for itself.
There has been so much talk of "war" on terrorists from so many people, for so long, to so little effect, that these belligerents are to be forgiven for assuming that this time is no different, even after the fall of two host governments. It is slowly dawning on the Arab world that this is the real thing, and that angry men with guns can no longer hide behind our former respect for religion and national sovereignty. After all, the worst that can happen already has - they've been killing Americans on American soil, and the Europeans have sniffed in disdain at the impropriety of the whole thing. That last used to matter - I'm not really certain why. It doesn't now.
There is something that is being missed here and it is the reason that Americans have already begun to turn against this war.
And, it goes beyond the traitorous press. As much as Freepers like to (rightly) insist that we are a nation at war, the population does not feel like it because they have not been asked to sacrifice.
After 9/11 peope were told to go shopping. War is a state of crisis that requires an all out effort. The President has not asked people to change anything. Had he taken the opportunity to ask the American people to rise up to the challenge the 21st century has presented us, his approval ratings would still be sky high.
And yes, it should have been, as suggested by Thomas Friedman, a Manhattan project to wean ourselves off of imported energy. This would have required everyone to change, to sacrifice and to keep themselves focused on a larger cause. A WWII style propaganda campaign would be raging and VDH would have exactly what he wanted in terms of public backing.
But, alas, W.'s oil buddies would certainly not have been thrilled.
1. Institute martial law until perps are caught and the true nature of future threat is identified
2. Incarcerate/internment camps for many/all Muslims
3. Severe economic disruption with mass layoffs, stock market crash and huge loss of wealth
4. Possible internal civil war as the left/right disagreement erupts into condemnation and anger
5. Possible secession of state(s) in aftermath as a result of #4
6. Response in kind to perpetrators country including nukes or massive bombing
7. Massive world-wide condemnation of US response, loss of world-wide allies for decades.
No matter who the President is at that time, if the response in kind does not occur, then he will not be President for long. Our country will cease to exist as it is today, it could recover in the future with good leadership, but that would be seriously in doubt. The situation would be analogous with the Civil War when it took 50-60 years to heal the wounds and move on.
This is why the entire scenario is so important and why it is so frustrating to see the left politicize this situation so much.
I now believe that the only reason there was unity among the presstitutes and eastern liberal elites during WWII was because Uncle Joe Stalin and The Soviet Union, Cradle of Communism were threatened. I don't believe they were with us before the Nazis invaded Russia. Also, the 9-11 style shockwave from Pearl Harbor scared the hell out of a lot of people, including girly-boy liberals, and caused a goodly proportion of Red Country America to say Screw it, enough is enough.
I've never really considered the paralells, but the nips and the krauts had been sinking our ships, killing our people, and invading our friends for years by the time of the PH attacks, and we'd done little about it. When they hit American Territory and our Military Assets, a lot of people must have been ready to go kill their sorry arses.
After the war, the carping, whining, back-seat driving, and weak-kneed monday morning quarterbacking were rampant, as they probably were during the war. But the press had much less direct power over the people than they do today. It must have been easier to shut it out. Though newspapers and radio did a pretty good job, and then along came Television.
We should also have a subplan -- in case of another 9/11 or a smaller attack, when the barbarians have their block parties to celebrate and chant "Death to America" and mutilate bodies, annihilate them. The Spectre gunship -- the ultimate party pooper.
Not only frustrating, it will be fatal to let them continue. There needs to be immediate pre-emption activity. Your #2 above should be considered, but instead of confining them, they should ALL be given a road map to the border for their own safety before the next attack, and in fact, may be the very thing we should do to prevent an attack.
It will be difficult if not impossible to guarantee their safety afterwards. Chaos will reign and looting and burning will be common in all urban areas. It will be difficult to know who the enemy is under such conditions and many innocents will perish.
The aftermath of another large-scale attack here will make the L.A. riots look like a revival meeting. Just my guess, based on the prevailing sentiment. This consequential scenario should not be overlooked by the purveyors of destruction.
Just make sure the Champaign vineyards are unaffected.
Nonsense. The RATmedia has destroyed the American mind so that it is losing its grip on reality.
A big government boondoggle is not sacrifice. Besides asking this spoiled, feckless and ignorant electorate to sacrifice would mean the support for the war would be about 25%.
Efforts to increase demand and keep the economy from collapsing were absolutely necessary. This is not the same kind of war as WWII and the tactics necessary then are not workable or appropriate now.
Apparently you buy into the Michael MOOre bilge from the crack about oilmen.
Yes.
Nuke Mecca.
This should be the message to the entire Muslim World
Now.
Today.
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ?
NOT OVERREACT ?
Much of the Population has become comatose since 9-11.
My fear is that we won't react enough.
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