Current Events
Thoughts on the News

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"Terrorist War"   2003

• Saddam Hussein using weapons of mass destruction against his own people and blaming it on us.
• Exploding the oil fields, as Iraqi oil revenues would be required for speedily rebuilding the nation.
• Pre-empting acts of terror against American - home and abroad.
• Casualties.
• Length of the battle, despite the assertions military action will be over in a flash. "Three days, three weeks, three months, three years?"
• Not knowing how US forces will be received - cheers, jeers or shots?
• As America's intelligence assets focus on Iraq, they may be less thorough in tracking threats to the US.
• South Asia and North Korea, with less coverage than he would like,
• Iraq gets carved up and people believe they have license to take parts of the country for themselves, followed by a scramble for the tools Saddam wielded to remain in power, including his military arsenal.
• How to bring enough aid to the region in the days after an attack begins, which could mean that even those celebrating liberation could quickly turn against the liberators.
• Lengthy operation viewed by the Iraqi people as foreign occupation.

"Terrorist War"   2002

Terrorist War, 2001

11Dec01. Damn clever, that Bush.

He is using native fighters in both Afghanistan and Somalia, then lets an ally handle the peacekeeping afterwards; carry a big stick to Iraq to support native uprising there and let the US mop up and move out letting another Ally or UN peacekeep! Accomplished with minimum US deaths, use of best US asset - technology; no big call up or draft; and no residual occupation by US. (The occupation money saved can be spend on rebuilding infrastructure and democratic free enterprise. Let Allies (Brits now, French and Germans next?) feel like they are participating, yet can separate themselves from violence of tech-war, again with minimum risk after the fighting is over, a technique that is politically popular with home governments.
Again, damn clever, that Bush.

28Oct01. Volunteers

9,000 Pakistani volunteers are to cross into Afghanistan to fight against the anti-terrorist United States. Do we take them out before they can do any damage to our people? Or, will the immediate destruction of idealistic, if misguided, young people upset our allies, the Pakistani, at home? Ideally the Pakistani government will stop any mass crossing and arrest the leaders and shoot any resisters. However, if the group is allowed to march into Afghanistan, we could napalm the lead vehicles and let the masses see terrible death up close so that the weakest will go home. Next day, assuming the naively defiant stay together, take out those that continue.

12Oct01. Why Terrorists?

Attending a Muslim diversity meeting in town, I observed several contradictions, perhaps not unusual in matters of faith. I turned to the history books to answer my question of a particular "why" about Muslim Terrorism.

24Oct01. How to Handle Peace Activists:   This is making the rounds on radio.

1. Listen politely, look interested.
2. Punch them in the face.
3. They will get up angry.
4. Remind the angry person that violence is bad for the reasons they said.
5. They will agree you are correct.
6. Hit them again, harder.
7. Repeat steps 3 thru 6 as long as necessary.
8. They will eventually understand they must hit back hard or continue getting hit.

19Oct01 . Civilian Casualties.

A few years ago we would have carpet bombed with a thousand heavy bombers to get at enemy installations and have accepted civilian damage measured in the tens of thousands. The press reports the modern wartime attacks as released by military press conferences and maintains "balance" in the news by reporting the "civilian casualties" as reported by the enemy. Human interest stories of suffering is standard "news" technique; it sells. It is also fun for reporters to poke holes in the proud claims of precision attacks by those straight laced military types. There is not much excitement in reporting people not killed by our attempts to reduce collateral damage at great expense in technology by our government and at great personal risk by our people.

17Sept01 . Another lesson from WW2.

We will buildup our forces to a point to easily take on additional tasks, such as to pursue the War on Drugs by hitting the collection, refining, and distribution points in Columbia and elsewhere. Or, will we want to hurry the boys home, instead.

15Sep01 . We Need an Arab Army to Hunt Terrorists

Our nation is attempting national unity with interfaith services. Much is made of American Arab Muslims. And also about how the people of Afghanistan are downtrodden by the same Taliban that we will have to fight. Will these American and Afghani join in an effort to end this terrorism?

I am convinced that only a native Muslim army will be able to put the finish to terrorism. Yes, the U.S. will have to start it - to get Bin Laden, to take the heavy arms - and, certainly, no US troops want potential spies with them. But after that, we have to get the natives involved. We standout on the ground there and we are heathen Christians who don't speak the language or know the territory.

Therefore send these "Arab-American Muslims" to recruit the natives to let them fight for their own, better country. We will have to support their effort and then "Marshall Plan" the country(s) with rebuilding aid, but this will be cheap when compared to American lives. And is the only way to weed out all Arab terrorism.

13Sep01 . War Planning

A first reaction, a cry for revenge, was glee when President Bush went to Omaha in hope he was visiting with officers he was sending into combat. Then came the strategy of an orderly preparation for war. As his father did, desert shield for 200 days led to quick victory of Desert Storm in 100 hours. This time, the President Bush promised to finish the job.

My warning to America. Terrorists will not be defeated with a space missile defense, consider that a stronger door on the cockpit could have deterred the terrorists. We need intelligence. But the key bit from this web page is that the next attack will not be nuclear, it will be biological.

On T-Day, 911, my wife dragged me to a national conference for which she had pre-paid big bucks. Attendance was only marginally effected by closing air traffic. There were people from California and Virginia, coast to coast. Now consider one of the big shows in NYC, Chicago or Las Vegas with tens of thousands in attendance. The target clientele can be custom selected. The Olympics is a dual target - international visitors as well as national athletes. Striking at the national computer conference in Las Vegas could endanger the high tech infrastructure the fundamentalists despise. A bacterial aerosol with an incubation period will infect, but allow victim carriers to return to hometowns and infect their high-tech co-workers.

The next part of this essay is why we must wipe out terrorism completely. Pearl Harbor's toll was 2,000. Today's total is expected be 20,000 [reduced now to about 3,000]. The next step, biological, will be 200,000 or will it be 2,000,000? National reactions - to ban travel to reduce spread and to quarantine to reduce local spread - will bring industry and commerce to a halt - even if the number is only 200.

Now the problem. If Abdul is a terrorist and is killed, his brothers and cousins will seek revenge. The personal aspects lead to fanaticism against whoever they think, or are told, is the object of hatred.

The problem is not easy to solve. In WW2, Germany was defeat so completely that the people appreciated the end. The Marshall Plan rebuilt that country so that there was a general appreciation of the United States. Japan was completely defeated, even a fanatic nation and society had to acknowledge the truth. Again, a benevolent occupancy resulted in calm.

If we go into Afghanistan, they may fight. Iraq, Iran come to their aid; Libya, Syria lend support. We have to keep smooth relations with Turkey, Turkmenistan, Saudi and Egypt. This means a carrot and stick pressure on those nations so as to achieve some of their needs that are greater than their interest to protect or protest favoring terrorists.

Beefing up security, loss of freedoms, and permanent inconvenience is not satisfactory -- the problem must be solved at the source.

12Sep01 . Our Web Page, "Be Prepared" (What Did We Learn from WW2 ?), Was Right!

• War comes as a surprise.   Airline pilots were told to say to hijackers, "Yes, Sir, where may I take you?"
• Fight with what you have.   The air bases to defend NYC (Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore) and Washington were in New England and Virginia. Base closing and budget cuts have closed all manned fighter strips in our most heavily populated areas. The federal government is tasked by the Constitution with national defense and facilitation of commerce -- not to administer social/economic programs.
• War is a come as you are party.   Would we like to have more than one carrier stationed in the Indian Ocean? Would we like to have the Raptor stealthy fighter - we have fighters, we have stealth bombers - but wouldn't we like to have a fighter than could fly unseen through airspace anywhere? How about the Osprey vertical takeoff transport plane with the range, speed and payload to put assault forces where we want them? Do we have sufficient forces to take on the identified AND the potential enemies in the area? Can we still cover our other obligations and threats? Do we have the transports, the anti-aircraft, minesweepers, repair ships to support a fleet at sea and forward bases for a prolonged war?
• Where we were wrong -- this time. Our military remains intact, the initial sneak attack was against civilian targets. Any reduction to our military was done by us, to us.
• Be prepared!   See above.

11Sep01 . Unthinkable Thoughts, best summarized as:

Passengers, office workers, heroes coming to their rescue - all ... gone.
I want revenge!
Yet we must recognize that killing a terrorist will make his little brother into a terrorist.
Kill 'em all ; let Allah sort'em out.

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