Posted on 06/06/2002 9:07:37 PM PDT by Pokey78
Edited on 04/23/2004 12:04:34 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Obsessing over Sept. 11 distracts us from preventing the next attack.
We have come to quite a pass. The nation continues on high alert as our teenagers gulp antidepressants and Osama's spokesman tells us to fasten our seatbelt. The attorney general asks if his agents could please be allowed to surf the Internet; we debate that, and whether or not it would be insensitive to fingerprint young Mideastern males trying to enter America. Palestinian terrorists kill another 17 people in another suicide bombing on another Israeli road, and Israel hits back, with Yasser Arafat under siege for a few hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Washington is broken, there is no fixing it, especially not in time to win a war on terror or provide any kind of security from attacks. The individual states should take back the power that they ceded to D.C. and we, in our respective states should insist upon it.
Our individual states should determine their immigration policies, secure their borders in cooperation with other states, States should determine their population policies, and have their own security measures in place. It's far easier to be effective in individual States than to hope in vain for something workable out of Washington.
Right now the demoncrats want to stall security legislation in favor of bringing to the floor a Federal hate crimes bill that is so vague it can cover anything and is not constitutional to begin with. Meanwhile the door is still open to people from terrorist countries, planes still land from Saudi Arabia with no idea of who is on board, and illegal immigration is costing tax payers 24 billion a year to provide them services, not to mention the 9 billion a year they send back home that could and should be used to stimulate our own economy.
We for sure have enough third world legal immigrants to cover those "jobs Americans won't do", we can place a reasonable working vistors plan in effect without having a run away invasion that forces Americans to learn a foreign language to get and keep a job in their own darned country. I'm for putting pressure on the States to do something, D.C. is a dead end and a waste of resources and time.
As usual, a prescient communique.
Re: bioterror - yep, it's a definate possibility. Specifically, on smallpox, vaccination may be helpful - many microbiologists feel that quarrantine along with vaccination of those in the quarranteened area will work in the face of an outbreak. That's assuming an acceptable number of fatalities and is based upon the additional assumption that the offending organism has not been modified to shorten its incubation period. Unfortunately, according to Ken Alibek (who essentially ran the former SU's bio-warfare program before defecting to the United States) the former Soviet Union was working specifically to develop a smallpox pathogen w/a shortened incubation period, therefore nullifying my faith in the tenet that an outbreak could be contained via quarrantine & vaccination. Re: your suggestion that at least all our young people be vaccinated - assuming we now have enough viable vaccine to do this, for this to be effective, we again would have to hope that the organism used in a terrorist attack has not been genetically modified in a way that would render our current vaccines ineffective. Maybe we'll get lucky and get attacked w/a garden variety strain of smallpox. Maybe not. Of course, there are numerous other pathogens no doubt available on the "Black Market" that could cause us particular harm if mass exposure/infection rates could be improved. I'll leave that to your imagination. But you are definately on the right track on this potential hazard.
RE: nuclear attack w/a dirty bomb - this is a bit out of my area, but I think it's safe to say that, depending on the size/amount and type of the nuclear material used, and the dispersal pattern/air currents, etc., someone 22 miles from a city hit with a dirty nuke is not likely to be a good candidate for cash-value life insurance. Assuming I'd be far enough away to survive the initial attack, I'd probably be more worried about the long term effects of radiation exposure on this one.
Why aren't we being told what to do if these kinds of attacks happen? Great question. Our public servants are too afraid to mention it, I suppose. You know, there goes the stock market, and only those hideous, beastly pharmaceutical companies would profit from widespread dispersal of this info due to their various anti-depressant products. I guess those would be the same hideous, beastly companies we'd be depending on for live-saving technologies and therapeutics if we were hit with bioterrorism.
I think you're right on the money with this article. I can only pray that those who are now busy with their senatorial navel-gazing and perpetual preening before the cameras, will see it.
I absolutely adore your work. Would you please consider moving here to fly-over country? True, it's not quite as cosmopolitan as New York, and true, it's not quite as scenic as New York; however, it's also not likely to be the number one or number two target on your average terrorist's hit list. There's a lot to be said for the land of corn and soybeans, from that particular perspective. We will definately leave the light on for ya.
I'm sure President Bush reads every essay that Peggy Noonan writes, but I'm not so sure about Karl. I think you're forgetting, Peggy writes for a living. Her tools are the written word and she is blessed with great literary skills.
OTOH, President Bush is leading the United States of America, the greatest nation on Earth. He has more weight on his shoulders then a million men. He is a passionate, honest and a God fearing man, who doesn't take his job lightly. Bush is POTUS, Commander and Chief, political leader, leader of the free world and yes, he is part media creation too. In fact, all presidents are media creations, to an extent.
But more importantly, George W.Bush is more then the sum of his parts. He knows his limitations and is humbled by his position in life. He didn't need to be President. Bush would have been content living on his ranch in Crawford Texas and happy being a husband and a father. The nation called on George W.Bush and he responded. He did what was right and the vast majority of American's, are thankful for his decision to serve his country.
You're wasting your time attempting to ridicule and insult President Bush. Most folks look right through that BS rhetoric. Besides it makes you look like a cheap and petty.
Judging from the conversations I've had over the last nine months, when the next shoe drops, if profiling isn't implemented immediately, there are a lot of people out there willing to start going vigilante, and/or marching (rioting?) on Washington to demand it.
You're kidding, right? These people that are in their 30's through their 50's are comatose and no amount of megatonage will wake them up. They have been indoctrinated into not resisting ANY aggressor. If 9/11 didn't wake them up, nothing will.
I assume that what people are doing right now is giving the government a chance to prove that it can protect us, and crossing their fingers.
We have no proof that Mr. Beamer and his friends actually brought down that plane. On the contrary, there is evidence that I have read, and though my sources in the aviation industry that say that it was brought down by another plane. I'll let you conect the dots.
Are you in some kind of camp that believes that all resistance on that flight, no matter how inept, is fictitious?
My analogy is that the American people are still at the beginning of their arousal state, and that society will react to protect itself if it feels that big daddy government can't do it.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Obviously they resisted, I just don't think that they brought the plane down. Please remember, witnesses say the plane started breaking up BEFORE it hit the ground. Doesn't take an Einstien to figure that one out.
I sometimes wonder how many of the important decisions made by our leaders are determined by similar childhood memories rather than adult rational decision-making processes.
Thanks to Peggy, and thanks for the ping.
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