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I think the last time the nation faced a real challenge:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but
because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and
measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one
that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one
which we intend to win, and the others, too
William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding
of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions
are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprise and
overcome with answerable courage.
If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that
man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be
deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or
not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which
expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the
race for space.
http://www.geocities.com/~newgeneration/rice.htm
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud
of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing
of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge--and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we
pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do
in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do--for
we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
Popularity,
in politics, marketing in business, the selling of God: promises and threats
vs.
The
unpopular thoughts of the dismal science of economics, the skeptical sciences,
unpleasant facts and bad news are never popular.
More
and more people are beginning to realize that the decline of the age of
America will be due to the preference for the comfortable over the
serious and difficult.
Our public administrative inefficiency, territorial disputes, remind us of the
British labour unions before the current age. The only thing that keeps us, or
anyone else efficient is competition. The government is non-competitive and
shows all the faults of socialism or dogmatic unions, where job padding, log
rolling, and fixed positions, using silos of activity unrelated to the demand
structure, causes real problems in getting the job done.
Change
is rarely popular despite the slogan of new
and improved. The effects of money on
being popular and getting elected are compounding the problems of a
non-functional government. In times of crisis we really need a public sector
that works. Everyone is stymied and frustrated in getting programs to work –
who gets visas, who is in the country, how do we defend against terrorist, how
do we conduct age four information warfare, (phase one is men, horses and
swords as weapons until Napoleon, two is guns and cannon used in the civil
war, then machines, tanks, airplanes and mass armies from World War I) and as
the Secretary of defense has said how do we prevent the bureaucratic system
becoming the enemy of national security.
We
all want to be liked, loved and supported, and in politics, business as well
as social life we go along to get along. If we reflect the popular we will be
popular. To get elected or sell a product we must motivate people to believe
we are like them, we understand their feelings, we support what they support,
we reflect warm and comfy feeling, and they identify with us, as exciting,
sexy, strong, powerful, and authoritative, like Dr. Welby, M.D. (Robert Young)
or Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Steward, you know what I mean
– non-threatening, good guy, telling us what we want to hear.
And
every little child should have a pony – if elected I will see everyone has
their own pony and we will pick up the entire pony poop free of charge. If you
buy our product you will look like a movie star and never be constipated
again.
On the other hand there are the dismal realist, the doctor
with bad news, the economist asking what we want to do without and how to
balance the budget, pay our bills, get out of debt, or the doctor who tells us
to stop smoking, drink less or not at all, eat right, exercise, or the
preacher who tells us to be nice to people we can’t stand, and if we don’t
we are told we will get fat, die, go broke, go to hell, or other unpleasant
consequences of our bad behavior. These
messages we don’t want to hear and blame the messenger for being a party
pooper, a spoiler, a tootsie two shoes, or no fun at all.
Religion
wants to sell with the good news – you will get pie in the sky when you die
and you don’t have to be afraid of anything, God will take care of you, and
you get all these goodies for free. But there is a catch – if you don’t
buy into the product you go straight to hell, do not pass go or collect
$200.00. And how do you know if
you have faith? Are you for real? How do you know if you believe hard enough?
How do you know if you are good enough – because you know there is a little
faithlessness, a little sinfulness, a little sham behind every good intention.
So wave your arms in the air, shout and give money, time, effort in the
promise of everlasting deliverance, glory and peace or something like that.
The
true faith is a hard path; truth does not come out of the barrel of a gun or
from following the text, or public opinion polls, but from hard work,
inspiration, discussion, competition, exacting methods, examination,
confirmations, i.e. the scientist method.
Dr.
Peter E. Pflaum, GlobalVillages
http://www.wiredbrain.net/
pflaump@earthlink.net
P.O. Box 2176 New Smyrna
Beach FL. 32170
Who am I ? see http://www.wiredbrain.net/pflaum.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------
The more you know and think - the more
hopeless it is to protect us from them - really it is - just read this and
think -
The point is clear - too many dangers
no way to defend ourselves - add nuclear - conventional (bombs)
I hope what we have done so far has not
made things worse - maybe it has put them off balance but the long run is
full of danger -
so only a new world
vision will do - the only question in my mind is does it happen by
forethought - by planning and reason or is it jammed down our necks by force
and disasters.
Maybe not this week - or month - but a
world divided between the rich and technical, depended on complex and
fragile systems and the majority, uneducated, poor, angry, superstitious,
but with powerful low tech weapons - it is only a question of time before
one attacks the other in ways that can not be defended. The offence
by low tech against high tech is too great to over come with more high tech
defense.
http://www.time.com//time/2001/underthreat/bioterror/index.html
Practical,
realistic Idealism:
The
only way I see of doing anything useful about 9-11 is an extreme form of
idealism – We need to work toward a global community with real standards
(such as exist within a civil society) a real global community – this is
going to be hard but is absolutely necessary. It will take a long time and
be very expensive, and may require real sacrifice, but there is no
alternative.
In
a civil society we do not settle issue with violence as a matter of doing
regular business (crime is crime and has a criminal justice system) and in
an interdependent global society we need to do the same.
We must have Global systems of justice – commercial law, social
justice, participation, (open societies) and criminal justice – world
police, courts, laws and security. Nothing else will do. Normal nationalism
is a threat to our safety and survival. National welfare depends on global
welfare.
Some
form of global warfare, public health, with an international safety net –
costing trillions is required (and could be the stimulus the global economy
needs) – because a better off poor would be a market and able to afford
basic infrastructure. America and Europe have well off customers, the world
could have billions more.
Since
we don’t know how to do international assistance without corruption and
great waste – supports and privileges for private enterprise is critical
– plans that actually work and produce income and return on investments.
There are lots of these enterprises under free trade – We need
International venture capital, basic education (direct provision) banking,
and direct construction of roads, communications by private contractors,
while we work on getting civil society and working governments. Trusteeships
may be required in some places.
Believe
me this is the only way to fight terror.
November 1, 2001
The New York Times
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/articles/blairtext_100201.html
Blair:
Around the world, the 11th of
September is bringing government and people to reflect, consider and change.
And in this process, amidst all the talk of war and action, there is another
dimension appearing, there is a coming together; the power of community is
asserting itself. We are realizing how fragile are our frontiers in the face
of the world's new challenges.
Today, conflicts rarely stay
within national boundaries. Today, a tremor in one financial market is
repeated in the markets of the world. Today, confidence is global; it's
presence or its absence. Today, the threat is chaos, because for people with
work to do and family life to balance and mortgages to pay and careers to
further pensions to provide, the yearning is for order and stability. And if
it doesn't exist elsewhere, it's unlikely to exist here.
I have long believed that this
interdependence defines the new world we live in.
The critics will say, ``But how
can the world be a community, nations act in their own self-interest.'' Of
course, they do, but what is the lesson of the financial markets, climate
change, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation or world trade? It is
that our self-interest and our mutual interest are today inextricably woven
together.
This is the politics of
globalization. And I realize why people protest against globalization. We
watch aspects of it with trepidation, we feel powerless as if we were pushed
to and fro by forces far beyond our control. But there is a risk. The
political leaders, faced with street demonstrations, pander to the argument
rather than answer it. The demonstrators are right to say, ``There is
injustice, poverty, environmental degradation.''
But globalization is a fact,
and, by and large, it is driven by people not just in finance, but in
communication, in technology, increasingly in culture and recreation, in the
world of the Internet, information technology, television. There's going to
be globalization. And in trade, frankly, the problem is not there's too much
of it. On the contrary, there's too little of it.
The issue is not how to stop
globalization; the issue is how we use the power of community to combine
globalization with justice. If globalization works only for the benefit of
the few, then it will fail and it will deserve to fail.
But if we follow the principles
that have served us here so well at home--that power, wealth and opportunity
must be in the hands of the many, not the few--if we make that our guiding
light for the global economy, then it will be a force for good and an
international movement we should take pride in leading.
Castro
part II - I agree - It is the hard reality:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/articles/castro_091101.htm.html
A lesson can be
drawn from that: none of the problems affecting today’s world can be
solved with the use of force, there is no global, technological or military
power that can guarantee total immunity against such acts, because they can
be organized by small groups, difficult to detect, and what is more
complicated, carried out by suicidal people.
Therefore, the
general effort of the international community must be to put an end to a
number of conflicts affecting the world, at least in this area. It is
indispensable to put an end to world terrorism (APPLAUSE) and build a
worldwide awareness against terrorism. It is not a country of bigots.
Here, it is not fanaticism that has been cultivated but ideas, convictions
and principles.
I reiterate that
none of the world problems –not even terrorism-- can be solved with the
use of force, and every act of force, every imprudent action that entails
the use of force anywhere would seriously aggravate the world problems.
The United States
is the country most vulnerable to terrorism.
It is the country with the most planes, with the greatest dependence on
technical resources, electrical power grids, gas pipelines, and so on. Many
of the people in these groups are fascists who do not mind killing. Mentally
speaking, they must be closer to insanity than to a balanced intelligence.
We have told the U.S. authorities that these methods should not be
publicized, because they are easy to use and a danger for them.
The way is neither
the use of force nor the war. intelligent policy based on the strength of
consensus and the support of the international public opinion that such a
predicament could definitely be solved. I think this unexpected episode must
be used to undertake an international struggle against terrorism. However,
this international struggle against terrorism cannot succeed by killing a
terrorist here and another one there, that is, by using similar methods to
theirs, sacrificing innocent lives. It
is resolved, inter alia, by putting an end to State terrorism and other
repulsive crimes (APPLAUSE), by putting an end to genocide and by honestly
pursuing a policy of peace and respect for unavoidable moral and legal
standards. The world cannot be saved unless a path of international peace
and cooperation is pursued.
While the attacks so far have been
limited and the response has been confused and lack clear leadership - the
BIG PICTURE is much worse than what has happens so far. A big attack will
test the "system" - the people, the government, all of us - I
can not just assume we will handle it - so far it's not a good record.
Leadership is leadership - a real office of Homeland defense - with the
powers of WW I and II - The model for a small office
with great powers and effect was Baruch, Bernard in WW I - and Roosevelt
wrote to James F. Byrnes, the former South Carolina senator and Supreme
Court justice whom he appointed to head the office: "Your decision is
my decision, and there is no appeal. For all practical purposes you will
be assistant president." -
As one of the " defeatists,
doubters and doves who are beginning to poke out their heads and second
guess" I think questions are useful - it is not tough vs. soft but
smart vs. stupid, not loyal vs. sunshine patriotism but wise and
innovative vs. bureaucratic precedent which embalms
dysfunctional principles. I am not sure they understand the problem of
massive attacks on the homeland. Too little, too late will be too little
too late. We have more to fear than fear.
United we stand behind a foolish policy
will not make a bad policy or government agency work - Vietnam was just
dumb not an issue of peace movements or the failure to use massive force -
but just a bad idea from beginning to end. They all (Congress, Media,
advisers) supported a dumb policy for far too long not the other way
around.
We would do well to remember what FDR said: "The
only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into
advance."
The recriminations, second-guessing and finger-pointing
that the anthrax terror has spread throughout Washington is just what we
do not need when we must unite in the face of a truly deadly foreign
terrorist foe.
Whoever is sending out these lethal letters has us
running around in circles with our political, public-health, investigative
and intelligence establishments tripping over one another. The media,
itself under assault, is magnifying the confusion in official Washington
and giving the nation an impression of a government under siege.
Bioterrorism is a deadly risk. It is one of the new
fronts we must open to defeat the terrorist and frustrate his plans. But
we need a sense of proportion. We cannot let a few letters and a handful
of deaths, however outrageous and tragic, distract us from our central
mission - to protect a free society from terrorist tactics.
Meanwhile, the defeatists, doubters and doves are
beginning to poke out their heads and second guess, like armchair
generals, our military moves. The likes of Sen. Joseph Biden worry aloud
that our bombing campaign cannot long continue without alienating the
Islamic world. The news media undermine public confidence in the military
action and criticize those who are far more knowledgeable and have much
more information than we do. One can sense the war's momentum melt away as
the initial bravado and enthusiasm fades away, and we face a long and
difficult battle.
But there is one saving grace - the people of the United States have
far more maturity than their leaders give them credit for. They are not
panicked. Unlike the House, they show up for work each day and they
understand that this war will be a long one. They grasp that all will not
go smoothly. They expect and will accept casualties. They realize that
bioterrorism is new and anticipate that it will sow confusion in official
circles as we try to grapple with an unprecedented and largely
unanticipated threat.
American public opinion can be very, very stubborn. Far from being
malleable, voters hunker down and stand firm when they have reached a
fundamental conclusion about important issues.
We are prepared for a long, drawn-out engagement and are willing to see
it through. The memory of the World Trade Center disintegrating and the
haunting vision of men and women jumping out of windows will sustain us
for the long journey ahead.
Let the government make mistakes, misjudge threats, fail to take timely
action, err in the face of new challenges. We expect all that and will
forgive it. The one thing we will not tolerate is being lied to. Trust us
with your mistakes. Admit your human error.
This is new ground and we expect our leaders to stumble and fall as
they learn to traverse it. Just have enough confidence in us to tell us
the truth as best you can discern it.
Dear
other appeasers and faint hearts:
Those
who question the effect of bombing and are fearful of our homeland security
may well be called appeasers, moderates who would disarm, smooth over, bring
around, placate our terrible enemies or simply cowards, unpatriotic, and
quitters. (In the old days we would have been fellow travelers or pink or
commies)
While
we can all agree on the ends – returning to a state of higher security and
safety by getting at the terrorist and making it impossible for them to
attack us again. Bring Al-Qaida to
justice is a natural desire but punishment should be designed to
do more than get revenge. Justice should be wise and be productive to
our long term aims of security. The same issue is going on in Israel
and Palestine they are not increasing their security but making things
worse. The cycle of violence is expanded not reduced by the current
anti-terrorist strategy. Israel and the U.S. are making more
enemies by clumsy targeting, civilian deaths, blowback, and rather than
reducing our danger it is increase it.
Unlike
Vietnam our foreign errors not only kill a lot of people from here and our
enemies abroad but now there will be many deaths and destruction here at
home, so the risks are greater. Criticism is therefore patriotic because the
welfare of the republic is a stake and single-minded stupidity will do us no
good.
Why are we being attacked:
Who has motive, means and opportunity ?
Motive is mainly Iraq - defeated but
the leaders are not replaced or weaken beyond retaliation - as
Machiavellians said if you make someone mad you must also make them dead so
they can't return to be a bigger danger. (Germany after WW 1) They want us
OUT of the region - but so do many others. They don't really give a damn
about the Palestinians, religious wars et al but want American troops out of
the gulf.
Means Iraq has a excellent well
supported intelligence service that keeps the people in power, in power.
Opportunity to attack using El Quaeda
network as cover - their money buys Afghanistan - El Quaeda is the Taliban
- so Iraq escapes but Afghanistan becomes the victims of
our quick response.
We want is cheap OIL - during the next 50 years
central Asia has the oil and gas and the stuff we want. It all comes down to
energy and money - not religion, politics, or other mysteries.
They make room for deceptions - an ancient art in the
region - and among the weak when they attack the powerful.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011022/ts/attack_saudi_sultan_dc_1.html
I thought so - the number of people
affected (30 or so) suggested a "weapons grade" or high grade or
professional and sophisticated state sponsored attack
- different from Florida and New York - as Sen. Daschle and Li
eberman
said at the time. Then some officers from the military (Fort
Detrick in Frederick or Ft. Mead) said it was just plain old garden
variety anthrax - Was this an intentional misinformation or are they just
incompetent ? I don't believe it is just a question of technical terms.
Why is this so important - because
if it is then it is more likely it is retaliation for US foreign policy
(Oil, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Palestine) - We go on acting as if we can do
anything we want in the world without consequences. We are tied at the hip
to Israel, we maintain the government in Egypt, we have troops in the Gulf,
we bomb and embargo Iraq, we make people mad and there are serious
consequences on lives, stability, economics, and politics at home. We
cannot carry on a war in Afghanistan when we cannot control domestic
terrorism.
The public will just not support it. In
1965 all the experts, Sect. of State, Defense Sect., National Security
people, (Except George Ball) were certain we would win in Vietnam - talked
about what government we wanted for their country. The same group (different
actors) seems certain again - they were wrong then and are wrong now - the
domestic and foreign damage done by mistakes then will be repeated in spades
now. Both errors is due to hubris (false pride) - false assumptions, not
understanding or even caring about the enemy, a amost religious belief in
superior technology to defeat a primative people, underestimating the
determination of the other side, dishonesty, lies, and the loss of public
support.
Nonetheless, the conclusion that the spores
were produced with military quality differs considerably from public
comments made recently by officials close to the investigation, who have
said the spores were not "weaponized" and were "garden
variety." Those descriptions may be technically true, depending on how
one defines those terms, several experts said. But they obscure the basic
and more important truth that the spores were treated with a sophisticated
process, meaning the original source was almost certainly a state-sponsored
laboratory.
That particle size, 1 1/2 to 3 microns in
diameter, said Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), is extremely small -- a first
requirement for making "weapons grade" anthrax spores for warfare
or terrorism.
But more than that is needed to get anthrax
spores to drift easily in the air and spread widely without settling quickly
to the ground. That is because tiny particles tend to have electrostatic
charges -- the static electricity that can cause hair to extend skyward when
it is rubbed against a balloon. Those charges make the tiniest particles
clump together into heavier ones, which then settle to the ground.
One of the primary goals of bioweapons
engineers since the 1960s was to figure out how to treat those tiny
particles in ways that would neutralize the problematic charges. Properly
processed, the tiny particles will remain separated from one another and fly
up and outward with virtually no effort. An imperceptible wisp of a breeze
can send them across a room.
In the United States, that problem was
solved by Bill Patrick, who developed the process at Fort Detrick as part of
the U.S. biological weapons program that ended in 1969. The process is
protected by at least five secret patents held by Patrick. It involved
freeze drying and chemical processing and was achieved without having to
grow vast quantities of spores or mill them to terribly small dimensions,
Patrick and other experts said.
The anthrax spores that contaminated the air
in Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle's office had been treated with a
chemical additive so sophisticated that only three nations are thought to
have been capable of making it, sources said yesterday.
The United States, the former Soviet Union
and Iraq are the only three nations known to have developed the kind of
additives that enable anthrax spores to remain suspended in the air, making
them more easily inhaled and therefore more deadly, experts said yesterday.
Each nation used a different technique, suggesting that ongoing microscopic
and chemical analyses may reveal more about the spores' provenance than did
their genetic analysis, which is largely complete but reportedly has done
little to narrow the field.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47864-2001Oct24.html
What needs to be done?
Let
me be as clear as possible about what needs to be done now, at once, today
-(by executive order under emergency powers with congressional
approval to follow) to protect the American population from a “Hiroshima”
size catastrophe. This has to be
the first priority.
If 9/11 was
not enough to get our attention – 6,000 dead, a trillion dollars in damage
– (including the economic, travel, employment, extra costs etc) then what
will? If we can’t do what needs
to be done now at least we should have the plans in place ready to go the next
time.
Open
discussion on a cease-fire – under the cover of the need for crisis
assistance.
A real
National Security Department: with a national and international supreme
commander (The Secretary of State – Powell)
Combine all
national and international capacities to counter terrorism – International
center with spies, electronic, observer systems, remote sensors, hit teams,
made up of people who know what they are doing. The police (FBI) and
intelligence community (CIA) and DOD special units must be put under unified
command including EU and others with a clear focus on prevention. A meeting of
principles should happen today – it is a grand alliance such as the NATO
Supreme Command structure of military warfare with a supreme commander - who
can draft whatever resources needed, make battlefield commissions, and apply
military discipline. Their job is to reduce the power of terrorist
organizations.
Make Homeland
defense (Gov. Ridge or the Sect. of Homeland Defense) one temporary super
agency with wide emergency powers to include FEMA, Coast Guard, border
security, INS, DOD, HHS and the other 40 agencies reporting directly with
flexible budgets to move resources quickly. The three functions – target
protection including populations from bioterrorism and facilities from attack,
money controls, and control of people’s travels (national ID cards) as well
as response, should be separate from the law enforcement or intelligence
function – the first makes risk assessment the other makes plans to defend
and respond. If we need the FBI, DOD, National Guard, and other agencies the
part that is target protection is broken off from their prevention functions. Their
job is to make it difficult to attack and respond when they do,
"Confusion
reigns at the lowest and the highest) levels," said Mohammad Akhter,
executive director of the American Public Health Association, who watched with
growing unease last week as a single anthrax-tainted letter pushed the
Washington area's emergency response system to the limit. He added, "This
is the one thing that causes us to shake in our boots."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31008-2001Oct21.html
http://www.wiredbrain.net/terror.htm
http://www.wiredbrain.net/bioterrorism.htm
http://www.wiredbrain.net/defense.htm
The Terrorist Attack on America:
Background
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/home/terrorism.asp
Foreign Affairs is making available previously published
articles that contribute to an understanding of the tragic attacks on New York
and Washington. Several of the essays analyze the nature of contemporary
terrorism and the capabilities of the United States to combat it. Other essays
provide the Middle Eastern and radical Islamic contexts for so much recent
terrorism, including, apparently, the attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon.
An old problem with a new twist: Why, we
can lose this war
From
the beginning of our country a fundamental issue was compromised – the role
of the national government and that of individual states ended up with a mixed
bag which has changed dramatically after the civil war, the world wars, and
the great depression but still remains ambiguous and undefined.
The political bodies, the courts, and interest groups redefine the
local or national duties and responsibilities.
Now
we are faced with the most serious crisis to the survival of the republic
since the civil war. This is not only a new kind of war but also a war where
we can be defeated. (By a Hiroshima size biological attack) The
structure is not up to fighting this war;
the growth of the federal establishment is wildly unsuited to fighting such a
war, is reinforced by the congressional committee structure, fragments of
state and local agencies, private interests, such that the 12 billions going
into preparations and response is completely untraceable in over 40 agencies
and (the 30 billion in intelligence is almost useless) no one knows who is
doing what, when and how. The 300 billion defense system is fighting the last
war and is not prepared to fight. There is no agreement as to who is in
charge of what and internal arguments paralyze action. Most states, cities or
hospitals have no plan in place as required by federal emergency
management. Gov. Ridge has a hopeless job from where he sits.
This
applies to immigration, border safety, bio and chemical terrorism, fighting
asymmetric warfare, handling mass panics, or all any issue you what to pick.
Money and lobbying, pluralism, and politics as normal will not work.
If
we lose the war, the reasons will be clear. There is a vacuum of leadership.
The last great crisis of the republic had a great leader. Without Lincoln the
republic would not have been saved. He did what was necessary to save the
union, create the grand army of the republic, a national army, (not provided
for in the constitution), a new monetary system, and new command structure
(and replace those who did not perform) he took quick and firm response which
maintained civil order under executive orders and emergency powers regardless
of the limits of the law and constitution, and used a clear message about his
war aims.
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Example:
Learning
from the enemy:
Mr Rumsfeld and his civilian advisers believe the US military does not
have the flexibility to combat an enemy like Bin Laden. They point to a computerized
war game in 1997 in which the army took on a terrorist organization similar
to al-Qaida, and lost. The generals, the analysts concluded, spent too much
time looking for things to bomb, and not enough time looking for innovative
methods of eliminating the enemy.
Al-Qaida
is a network of independent suppliers with “just in time” inventory
supporting dozens of small independent “franchised” cells of terrorist
activist each with a local commander who can operate behind enemy lines, lay
dormant until needed, come up with innovative strategies and defeat large
organized bureaucracy. If
caught there is no link back to the base. Anyone with an idea can make a
proposal including what he would need to carry out the mission. They can
also defeat or weaken other similar networks. We should use these same tools
against them.
Domestic
and foreign operators could be given support as “privateers” with
various schemes to catch, disrupt, and organize assassins, use of native
tribes, foreign intelligence operators, all at arms length with absolute
“deniability”. The mob,
Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, the border states around Afghanistan, and
Russia, Saudi Arabian, and other countries have individuals and groups that
could put together plans “out of the box” which could surprise the enemy
and do real damage at low costs. Fifty or a hundred independent contractors
working in dozens of countries could infiltrate, blowback, and discover the
supply of money, documents, and plans of the enemy. The methods include
kidnapping, double agents, and a whole range of dirty tricks used by Jordan
in defeating “Black September” and Israel dealing with Abal Natal and
Egypt with it’s domestic terrorist.
Week
of bombing leaves US further from peace, but no nearer to victory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,574207,00.html
At one
end of the US war machine are people like Donald Rumsfeld, the ultimate
defense intellectual who views the war on terrorism as an intriguing puzzle
requiring new ways of thinking. At the other are the long-serving men in
uniform such as General Tommy Franks, the former artillery officer leading
the campaign.
We need
a global "special operations" commander in the field that reports
directly to the NSC
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4267231,00.html
I hear at congressional testimony and
from some sources that it is VERY difficult to mount a biological attack
that will effect million, the economy, or society, and act in effect like an
atomic bomb. Is it true that only a foreign state could mount such an
attack? Others say it's not hard - is the example in Japan relevant, do
"they" need soviet or Iraq's scientist - labs, complex procedures
? Do the 10 micron distribution system (small enough to enter lungs) really
matter so crop dusters, ultra lights, (includes crop dusting unlicensed
craft made and sold mail order by Pawnee from Co. or NM can't be used or
model 5' wing span planes at night ) can't be used because they don't know
how to make aerosols. - does anyone really know ? or any of the other agents ?
I will ask my doctor if the children should be vaccinated for:
|
Bacillus anthracisb (only
military use and one factory unlicensed) |
Ascaris suum |
|
|
Brucella suis
|
Bacillus anthracisb
|
|
|
Coxiella burnetiib
|
Coxiella burnetiib
|
|
|
Francisella tularensis
|
Giardia lamblia
|
|
|
Smallpox
|
HIV
|
|
|
Viral encephalitides
|
Rickettsia prowazekii
|
|
|
Viral hemorrhagic feversb
|
ebola (typhus)
|
|
|
Yersinia pestisb
|
If there is an infection will we be
quarantined ? Will foreign travel be limited. i.e. should I get a boat now
(I live on the coast and have a house in Spain but have jobs, schools, a
life here ) - be ready to evacuate - should the kids have small pox
vacations ? I am only a little concerned about me but my first duty is to my
children. Are we anywhere prepared for this ? The stated goals of Al Qaeda
is to do credible damage to our power, economy, will to fight, panic,
disruption so they can attack the Saudi Arabian state and perhaps Egypt,
Pakistan, and reconstruct the Arab empire if not the Moslem Nation.
Asymmetric warfare is low tech vs.
complex bureaucracies as well as high tech. The mice vs. the elephant and
the big power is disabled by his own strength - such as in Judo.
Taking over an airliner with a knife, using mails, so the model or ultra
light seems likely - a glider or balloon - with a little of something
contagious to this population. (many targets) spread fear and panic.
"
Although the list of potential agents is long, only a handful of pathogens
are thought to have the ability to cause a maximum credible
event to paralyze a large city or region of the country, causing high
numbers of deaths, wide-scale panic, and massive disruption of commerce.
Diseases of antiquity (including anthrax, smallpox, and plague), notorious
for causing large outbreaks, still head that list. In addition, other
agents, such as outline toxin, hemorrhagic fever viruses, and tularemia,
have potential to do the same. By focusing on a smaller list of these
low-likelihood, but high-impact diseases, we can better prepare for
potential intentional releases, and hope to mitigate their ultimate impact
on our citizens. "
This
Is a Religious War
A must read
In a world of absolute truth, in matters graver than life and death,
there is no room for dissent and no room for theological doubt. Hence the
reliance on literal interpretations of texts -- because interpretation can
lead to error, and error can lead to damnation. Hence also the ancient
Catholic insistence on absolute church authority. Without infallibility, there
can be no guarantee of truth. Without such a guarantee, confusion can lead to
hell.
The
Wonders of the mind
Key word "infrastructure" http://www.wiredbrain.net/information.htm
What is to be done?
You can not go after an infection
with surgery.
First, I have to believe the Government from the
President on down is doing their best, as they know the best to do. Many
people are critics the government until they find they are dependent on the
collective community to provide for their safety and welfare. May God bless
our leaders, grant them wisdom and nerve, they need all the support and help
they can get.
But the sense of danger and emergency seems greater in
the public than in some of the administration doing business as usual. The
following suggestions are actions, which will improve our domestic security,
the first priority of Government, because without order there is no other
freedom.
First freedom from fear is the first freedom, then
freedom from overwhelming misery and want that blinds people to higher goals
and reduces life to the law of the jungle, then freedom from ignorance,
superstition, and false knowledge that drives people into evil, destructive,
and prevents needed confidence and progress, the forth freedom is civil
society, the room to disagree without being disagreeable, to promote diversity
without chaos, the room to experiment and innovate. But they come in that
order; so without security it is hard to provide the framework for basic
economic progress, without basic living standards, basic education is
impossible, and without a basic education civil society is impossible.
Thus, all effort should be directed to security and
the first line of defense is offence. There is no way of “target
hardening” or borders, or ID, or police work that will make us secure. The
War on Drugs is a close example and cannot defeat the importation of drugs.
The War on Terror even if 10 or 100 times the war on drugs and even if 10 or
100 times more repressive and nasty, dirty, and mean will not make us safe
here at home or our interests overseas.
Therefore, our domestic security depends on covert
intelligence and working on causes of misery, repression, ignorance, in those
parts of the world which provide the motivation, troops, and where with all to
attack us. Without a global vision there is no safety for the rich in a sea of
poverty.
1.)
Assign every resource in the coalition to covert penetration,
disruption, decimation, and assassination, of the enemy.
A rapid response hit team from the G8 should be organized immediately
and centered in the region. The Russians, Pakistanis, Jordan and the dictators
of the CIS stans in the region, the Israeli, Egyptian, Saudi, Chinese, all
have experience in kidnapping (including family members of the actors) bribes,
threats, much better than we do. They are supported by electronic and visual
intelligence, Special Forces and Air power, but the leadership is
international, based on covert action not American traditional military. If
you disrupt bank accounts you cannot use them to trace to the owners and who
is getting the funds at the operational end. If you bomb camps you disperse
the enemy rather than destroy them. You can not go after an infection with
surgery.
2.)
Internationalization of border security is done at the source more
than at the frontier. The world has to get use to a high level of
certification of people and cargo at the point of origins.
Universal ID cards (passports) with biological ID need to be provided
travelers, and secure manifests and seals for cargo. Oracle has volunteered to
create such a system and we need it now – with tracks on travelers by
recording the card at hotels, banks, auto rentals, airlines, and requiring all
aliens to report via ATM machines (with bio scanners) on a regular basis.
3.)
The great information system in the sky which can provide every traffic
cop, border agent, visa officer, Airport, car rental or other contacts with a
good real time lists of who we are looking for what ever their ID or false
papers. Persons must be identified by their person not their documents. This
system must be international, universal, and efficient.
Contrasts:
Basic elementary education, worldwide would be a
fraction of the U.S. Military budget – A billion students – at $100 each
– teaching salaries are under $1000.00, classrooms are primitive, books are
reused or shared. That could do more to make us secure in the new world than
seventy divisions. Includes a basic feeding program for 10 cents a day.
I have sat in a modern office building in a modern
University in a Southern City and looked across the street at “slave
quarters” – little wooden houses for domestic staff. We have the backward
areas in the Delta, in Appalachia, in Slums – England has Liverpool and
south London, Spain has extreme contrasts, but nothing like it was is in
Afghanistan, or Ethiopia, or of parts of the old Soviet Union, or China or
India or Pakistan, or North Africa, Egypt, South Africa – Modern
Universities, hospitals, engineering firms, communications along with tribal
areas without roads (tracks), water, or any modern technology, medicine, just
as a thousand years ago, or two thousand years ago or five thousand years ago.
As the world moves forward faster and faster, those
who stand still, or worse decline and get poorer because of ecological and
population pressures, are further and further behind. Some can leap frog –
jump from no phones to cell phones, but most are more and more dysfunctional
and uncompetitive, both in means and ideas. Ideas from a thousand years ago
were superstition, magic, tribal, irrational, but functional to their times
and needs. The clash of civilization is a clash of ideas – modern vs.
ancient. In Haiti, which has been in decline most of its history, and has a
population ecological disaster, it became clear as we prepared for an election
– a very modern idea –that voting was based on tribal customs and the
power of Voodoo and village tom-tom macude, loyalties were based on clans and
old land owning and business elites, politics included magic and witchcraft,
there were few newspapers because people can’t read, independent radio was
new and just beginning to have an impact, but the media was often in French, a
foreign language to the 90 % who know only dialects,
there has been no renaissance, no age of enlightenment, no industrial
revolution, no liberal middle class, no sense of a neutral bureaucracy or a
constitutional army, so sense of modern law and procedures, but just an
election imposed from outsiders.
Basic elementary education, worldwide would be a
fraction of the U.S. Military budget – A billion students – at $100 each
– teaching salaries are under $1000.00, classrooms are primitive, books are
reused or shared. That could do more to make us secure in the new world than
seventy divisions.
Selling Modern Islam:
What every advertising executive knows
the way to make a sale is through passion, emotion, with repeated simple
messages and images with tie the product to feeling. It has little to do
with logic or reason. In dealing with the great unwashed masses in backward
countries it is no different maybe more so - the LINK or HOOK is emotional -
To sell America and Anti-terror simple
message is we are great - exciting - all good feeling, THEY are nasty -
dogmatic - unfriendly - un Arab - Un Moslem - By showing happy Moslems, in
beautiful mosques, happy children, all the images of paradise vs. mean poor
miserable people in terrorist lands - The spokes man has to be friendly but
profound teacher or religious leader - not westernized by modern - like old
Lebanon, The leaders of the Moslem world made some very useful statements -
turn their positive images into negative ones - clearly a job for an
international advertising agency -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/attacked/A40171-2001Oct10.html
Positive
and negative feedback of Globalizations:
National
Interest and international interests cannot be separated
Interdependence
Economic
– growth -
Inequality,
half under $3 a day, a billion under $1
Information
-
New
tools good and bad
Medical:
Better
and new plagues
Democracy
Truth,
Life and diversity – one or many
Tuesday,
October 09, 2001
Watch
Address
by Fmr. Pres. Bill Clinton
Sponsored by the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives.
Topic: Leadership & National & International Issues. Washington,
DC
http://www.c-span.org/terrorism/about.asp
The Bush speech to Congress:
Hughes quoted to me an e-mail message she had gotten from a journalist,
saying that after the speech he'd been able to sleep again. It made sense.
The speech reassured, even in the way it alternated its soaring Gersonian
moments and its Hughesian explanations. America was mad but not too mad,
mindful and not weak. Courage, compassion, civility and character were all
there too -- the values that Bush ran on and that Gerson helped articulate
in the campaign. After months of placating the right wing and days of
disarray, the president had returned to the political and emotional center.
The very act of the speech suggested that civilized life would continue.
The president had just sat around a big war map at Camp David -- but instead
of first doing something violent, he turned to words. Some of those words
were bland. Many were vague. Other than the demands to the Taliban, there
was little policy in it. ''This was a strategic speech, not tactical,''
admitted a senior White House official.
Very interesting story. A very good
speech. BUT what you do not have you can not teach, project or envision.
There is no global vision of a better world as there is in Blair's speech
because they don't have one - America does not have one - sad but true - we
are not true internationalist and do not yet understand that there are no
borders to misery, to trade and economics, to ideas and technology - we are
interdependent like it or not - and there are reason not to like our
dependency and need much greater sensibility to a global reality but there
at ground zero is the message - loud and clear but not hear - they don't get
it - we can not live fat and rich in a world of billions of wrenched people,
miserable and angry ! Not to justify, not to make moral relevance of
evil, but to draw out an image of a better, more just world. The Americans
do not have a clear idea of community, of social justice, of the social
contract, but stumble from one thing to another without any ideological map
or theory, this causes a lot of trouble - because pragmatic actions unguided
by policy get into trouble.
Positive and negative feedback of
Globalizations:
National Interest and international interests cannot
be separated
Interdependence is a fact - with both positive
and negative realities
Nature of community, expand freedom and opportunity
Economic – growth - but Inequality, half
under $3 a day, a billion under $1
Information - New tools good and bad
Medical: Better and new plagues
Democracy Truth, Life and diversity – one or
many
Tuesday, October 09, 2001
Watch
Address
by Fmr. Pres. Bill Clinton
Sponsored by the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives. Topic:
Leadership & National & International Issues. Washington,
DC
http://www.c-span.org/terrorism/about.asp
A difficult war, an impossible peace:
Launching helicopter gunship into the battle will be risky. Afghan
guerrilla fighters armed with Stinger missiles repeatedly shot down Soviet
helicopters when they flew below 10,000 feet in the war there in the 1980's
Hunter Army Airfield is home to the 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized)
Aviation Brigade, 603d Aviation Support Bn; 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regt; 3d Bn,
160th Special Operations Aviation Regt (Abn); 559th and 260th Quartermaster
Battalions; 224th Military Intelligence Bn (AEB); 117th Tactical Control
Squadron (GAANG); Coast Guard Air Station, Savannah; and 6th Brigade, 1st
ROTC Region.
But the officials' remarks indicated that the helicopter gunships were
part of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which has two
battalions at Fort Campbell, Ky., and a third at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
The 160th, the sole large Army unit specially trained for such a
mission at night and in bad weather, has been involved in many major
military operations. It is trained to deploy anywhere in the world in days
or even hours. Its helicopters can be ferried in cargo planes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40223-2001Oct10.html
As a result, he indicated, transnational concerns, such as terrorism and
weapons proliferation, have not received adequate attention from senior
commanders, who don't have the capabilities to coordinate with law enforcement
or to track a threat from one continent to another.
The war in Afghanistan is overseen by Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the
head of the Central Command, as the regional command for the Middle East and
Central Asia is known. But the discussions inside the Pentagon are a strong
signal that when the anti-terrorism campaign eventually moves beyond
Afghanistan, command of it may be moved elsewhere.
Franks has been the target of some sniping in the Pentagon from officers
who say that his background as an artillery officer gives him little
preparation for waging an unconventional war that relies heavily on Special
Forces and air power.
The long terrible war in Afghanistan is one of groups,
tribes, and ethic group over a mountainous terrain, which have a difficult
time living together in peace. They don’t give up because they are not only
loyal to their tribal leaders but are completely dependent on the extended
clan for survival. Lone individuals or families cannot live without help from
their group. There is little basis for the building of a civil society because
the “social contract” does not exist. A social contract is an agreement to
live by general rules; some of the collective decisions are for or against the
local or special interests of different groups but they all agree to go along
to get alone. We have experienced a civil war where the social contract has
broken down, there are still various groups that don’t except the general
decisions and the way decisions are made. Democracy is one way common
decisions are made legitimate, responsive ruling elites, minority rights,
regional federations, symbolic figures such as a king, tribal assemblies,
religious ceremonies, signs and symbols, but force, police, secret police, law
and courts are necessary but not sufficient to make internal peace possible.
If the northern alliance takes control of the capital,
the Taliban does not just disappear. If it falls apart it becomes a movable
league of warring tribes, commanders, hit and run terrorist, which make civil
government difficult to impossible. Law
and order comes at the barrow of a gun as it did in China, Russia and in many
places. We can hope the old King can make a deal but it will be fragile at
best and will have more than a few rough edges. What a mess, what a tar baby,
no wonder Pakistan supported whoever could bring some sense of order in the
unruly land.
Inside Al-Qaeda: a
window into the world of militant Islam and the Afghani alumni
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes010928_1_n.shtml
| Bin
Laden and his fellow fanatics are products of failed societies that
breed their anger. America needs a plan that will not only defeat
terror but reform the Arab world |
|
By
Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK |
http://www.msnbc.com/news/639057.asp?0nw=n1d#BODY
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