According to the New York Times, a congressional panel fears that the next terrorist attack on the United States will involve the use of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. “In a report to be released this week, the Congressionally mandated panel found that with countries like Iran and North Korea pursuing nuclear weapons programs, and with the risk of poorly secured biological pathogens growing, unconventional threats are fast outpacing the defenses arrayed to confront them.” The article continued:
“America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” the bipartisan panel concluded.
“Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan,” the report states, citing the country’s terrorist haven along the border with Afghanistan and its tense relations with nuclear rival India.
“Pakistan is an ally, but there is a grave danger it could also be an unwitting source of a terrorist attack on the United States — possibly with weapons of mass destruction,” the
report said.
The report is the result of a six-month study by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which Congress created last spring in keeping with one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
The neat thing about the blogosphere is that it consists of people representing hundreds of vocations ranging from backgrounds in intelligence, military operations, banking, political science, education, health professions, and marketing — to name a few. Bloggers have been writing about these same possibilities for the past seven years. They formed the same conclusions, issued the same warnings, and they did it free of charge. Amazingly, the mainstream media only publishes such findings when a congressional panel releases them — as if these panelists are any more qualified than thousands of highly intelligent people who are also bloggers. We too have been warning Americans about all too cozy relationships between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. We also have been writing about the imminent threat; we’ve said that another terrorist attack on the American people isn’t a matter of “if,” but “when.”
This is the amazing part of politics. Government officials can ignore the hundreds of bloggers, even when their concerns reveal superior intellectual analysis from news items found in hundreds of on-line international and domestic news journals; the conclusions only matter when politicians and government bureaucrats release their findings. It makes one wonder, “How much are we paying these people?”
Naturally, politicians want us to think of them as the forward edge of the spear in America’s defense, but we know better than that. Congressional panels sit around expensive mahogany tables and review notes prepared by hundreds of staff assistants, and after they have postured themselves for the most credit or in the best possible light, they authorize the release of a sanitized version of their “classified” conclusions. Voila — the deception is complete and we all think that a congressional panel has saved us from terrorists.
Of course, this is all pure balderdash. It is true that Americans are in great danger, but the threat of terrorism hasn’t abated simply because a congressional panel has released its findings. In fact, this kind of information may actually depress free market activities even further than they are now. Meanwhile, the raw questions remain unanswered: why hasn’t our government sealed our borders? Why does the State Department continue to allow Middle Eastern people unfettered access to the United States for the purpose of “attending universities?” Why do we still have illegal immigrants from Kenya living in community-assisted facilities?
Most of these problems are failures of the Bush Administration, but I honestly do not see much in the way of change and hope emanating from the Obama camp, either. We can continue to urge “moderate” Muslims to speak out against acts of terrorism, but we (should) know by now that whether moderates (if they exist) speak out will not deter extremists from their task of destroying western civilization. We (should) know by now that terrorists are always looking for new ways to attack us, even including the use of social networking devices such as “My Page” and “Twitter.” We (should) know by now that the only way to stop extremism is to locate and kill extremists. So the question isn’t what we know, it is rather what we are prepared to do.
What I hope is happening right now (in some swank boardroom with the president-elect’s logo on the door), is that Barack Obama is reevaluating his willingness to sit down with terrorists “to work things out.” I hope he will revisit his attitude toward Iran, a country busily producing atomic grade weapons components, and putting them into the hands of depraved fanatics. I hope Obama intends to make clear to the Pakistani government we will completely annihilate that country if even one of their citizens detonates a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon inside the United States. And finally, I hope Mr. Obama and his interim cabinet thinks of Mumbai (Bombay,) India as immediately next-door, rather than some far distant place. The danger to Americans is that real.
|