Here is why it is Impossible to Stop a Clever Terrorist Attack

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Version 77: More American ingenuity is certainly on the way...

You underestimate the intelligence of Americans...

You also forget we like war. It is kind of a challenge type thing with us.

Without us, the French would be speaking German...

Or exterminated... probably gassed... or in slave camps... still...

What's weird is that the French don't want to help out with the
war with the extemist Islamics... lazy?... scared?... Who knows...


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SouthAmerica: The French has a large Islamic population living inside France today.

Europeans have a different way of handling terrorism than the United States. Terrorism is not something new for Europeans and each country has been fighting a war against some kind of terrorist group.

The United States in the other hand has overreacted regarding each terrorist attack in US soil. And we still as unsafe today in the US as we were on September 10, 2001.

The idea that we are being protected by the government against a terrorist attack it is just an illusion.

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The phenomena of Islamic terrorism, though, is different from the types of terrorism they were fighting before, i.e. Red Brigades, Baader Meinhoff, etc. And, a la the Brits, they have allowed radicals to preach hatred against their host nations.

There has not been an attack on US soil since 9/11, and numerous plots have been thwarted.

Yes, there are still gaping weaknesses, such as port and border security, and the undeniable fact is that a free society such as ours makes us an easier target. However, the fact that we have not been hit again in almost four years when we are enemy number one, says something about the steps that have been taken here and abroad.

If that's an illusion, it's a heck of a good one.

 

Over reacted? How so? By going to Afghanistan looking for Osama Bin Laden? By going into Iraq?

And your claim we are "still as unsafe today in the US as we were
on September 10, 2001" is not exactly true. Some steps have been taken.

Many more are on the way.

 

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Hapaboy: There has not been an attack on US soil since 9/11, and numerous plots have been thwarted.

Yes, there are still gaping weaknesses, such as port and border security, and the undeniable fact is that a free society such as ours makes us an easier target. However, the fact that we have not been hit again in almost four years when we are enemy number one, says something about the steps that have been taken here and abroad.

If that's an illusion, it's a heck of a good one.

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Version77: Over reacted? How so? By going to Afghanistan looking for Osama Bin Laden? By going into Iraq?

And your claim we are "still as unsafe today in the US as we were
on September 10, 2001" is not exactly true. Some steps have been taken.

Many more are on the way.


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SouthAmerica: Here, I am quoting from my article published March 2002
“September 11, 2001 and the religious war that changed the USA”

To wage a war on terrorism is an absurd idea. The United States spent $ 1 trillion dollars in defense in the last three years, and $ 2 trillion in the last eight years. Even with these very large amounts of defense spending the United States could not prevent the attack by 19 terrorists armed with low-tech box cutters.

The sad thing is that the American people have been mislead to believe that they can be protected from a terrorist attack by increasing defense spending. When the reality is: it is an impossible task for the government to protect the American people against most kinds of terrorism attacks in US soil.


Here is how the US overreacted when the country were attacked by 19 terrorists armed with low-tech box cutters and a little imagination – The US reacted with defense spending of over $ 2.1 trillion dollars.


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From January 2001 to December 2005 - (5 Year-Period)

Since George W. Bush took office in Jan 2001, year after year the US defense spending has gone up. During the first five years of a Bush Administration the US has wasted over $ 2.1 Trillion dollars in defense spending.

During that same period it is estimated that Europe spent $ 750 Billion dollars, China $ 235 billion dollars, and Russia $ 325 billion dollars in defense spending.


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On February 20, 2005 The New York Times – Week in Review Section – had an article “Nuclear Reality: America Loses Bite” by David E. Sanger.

The article talks about North Korea and how they become a nuclear power. The article also mentioned how George W. Bush and his administration changed their tune, because North Korea has nukes today.

The N.Y. Times also had another article in the same section saying “…It is striking, however, how much has not changed in the three and a half years since nearly 3,000 people were killed on American soil. The nation’s chemical plants are still a horrific accident waiting to happen. Nuclear materials that could be made into a “dirty bomb,” Or even a nuclear device, and set off in an American city remains too accessible to terrorists.

…Chemical plants – After Sept. 11, the Environmental Protection Agency identified 123 chemical plants that could, in a worst-case attack, endanger one million or more people.

The article also covers other areas such as nuclear materials, nuclear power plants, port security, hazardous waste transport, and bio-terrorism.


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In the last few days Lou Dobbs on Moneyline program started showing on television how unsafe the chemical plants are today. He shows how easy would be access to the terrorist to chemical plants with very dangerous chemicals. He did show how unprotected a chemical plant was right here in New Jersey – and if terrorists decided to attack that chemical plant that they show on television for the entire world to see it – they calculated that 12 million people would die from such an attack.

There are two possibilities here: 1) The media are getting very stupid in the US to show on television how easy would be to attack such unguarded chemical plant full of powerful toxic chemicals or 2) It is a trap to see if the terrorists are watching the information on television, and they can catch them in the act if they try to attack such a chemical facility.


Note: By the way, the reason that corporations are not protecting many of their chemical tanks around the country, it is because they are in business to make money, and they are not going to spend money hiring people to guard their tanks to prevent acts of terrorism.

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southamerica, no one is denying that the US is vulnerable against a terrorist attack. However, since we have not been attacked since 9/11, I must conclude that either the measures we have taken here and abroad - albeit expensive measures - have either been effective, or al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are waiting.

Why would they wait? Striking another blow against the US would be a huge morale boost for them, and blow up (pardon the pun) their image in the Arab street.

Another possibility is that they fear attacking the US again would reverse the growing US public sentiment to recall the troops. That in itself would indicate that they have been weakened considerably.

You don't like Bush, I understand that. You're against the war, I understand that. Can you understand that we haven't been attacked in almost four years by an enemy whose stated aim is to destroy us?

 

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Hapaboy: Why would they wait?


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SouthAmerica: That is the big question.

I don’t understand why they have not attacked any place in the US since 9/11 - Since they certainly have the capability if they want to.

Please don’t give me - it is because the Government is protecting us – that is pure bullshit.

In the last year, Lou Dobbs on CNN talked night after night about the number of illegal immigrants that are able to get inside the United States year after year – just in the last 12 months according to his estimates more than 3 million illegal immigrants were able to get inside the US with no problem.

This is the number for just one year – since Bush became president from 8 to 10 million people were able to get inside the United States as illegal immigrants.

Do you believe that 5 or 10 terrorists would have a hard time getting inside the United States among these 10 million illegal immigrants?

I don’t think so, when these guys are trained for a lot tough situations.

I have no doubt that they are here among us – and the question is:

Where? And what are they waiting for?

The fact that they are not wasting time in doing little terrorist attacks in the US, leads me to believe that they must be planning something worse and bigger than 9/11.

They did hit Spain, and also London that has 100 times the security that we have in the US. It is just a matter of time for them to attack the US once again.

As you said, the only reason they may have not attacked the US as yet – it is because they are winning the war inside Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Iraq is a basket case and in the middle of a nasty civil war – the only people who doesn’t get the point are the people in the Bush administration.

It has been obvious to me that Iraq has descended into a nasty civil war – Eventually the even the American military will grasp that fact.

The civil war in Iraq is completely out of control and there is nothing that Americans can do about - other than pack in and leave that country as soon as possible.

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I understand that the traders in Wall Street are in denial and they live in La La Land –
And they are not thinking about what might be going on today inside the US as a result of the London attacks.

Since the London attacks here in the US and on other places around the world – all Moslems became potential suspects of being a terrorist – even the Moslems who are native of these countries – as was the case with most of the terrorists of the London attack.

As the US government gets even tougher with the Moslem communities inside the US, that might trigger panic among them and force them to do their bad deed – sooner than later.

If they are up to no good I hope their target is not in New York, in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania where most of my family and friends live.


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SouthAmerica: Reply to hapaboy


The days after 9/11, I could smell the terrible smell that was coming from the World Trade Center. The smell was all over the air in our area, and my eyes were burning because of that smoke.

I did go a number of times to a place about two miles from my house in New Jersey and I could see in the horizon the smoke coming out from the ruins of the World Trade center – from that point I used to be able to see the twin towers. It is hard to believe that these massive buildings were not longer there.

I know various families that lost love ones in the world trade center terrorist attack. The Catholic Church where my mother goes to mass every week lost 26 members of that church on 9/11.

In our area 9/11 is not about flag waving and patriotism – 9/11 represents the loss of loved ones – loss of jobs and disruption of lives and communities – we took a direct hit from the terrorists – we were their target.

This is why I hope they do their deed some place else next time and not in the area where we live.

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Hapaboy: You don't like Bush, I understand that. You're against the war, I understand that.


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SouthAmerica: Yes. I don’t like Bush, and I believe he is a “Moron.”

I am not anti-republican, since I used to like Richard Nixon. I still think Nixon was a good president. (I am one of the few people who think Nixon was a good president.)

George Bush Senior did not bother me: one-way or the other. But Bush Jr. is an idiot on my book. I believe the United States deserve a higher quality of a person to serve as president – the rest of the world knows that today the US has an idiot in charge.

We have to wait another 3 and ½ years for a new elected president in the US – the only consolation is that anything that Americans will elect in the next election it will look good compared with what we have today.

Yes, I have been against the war all the time. In my opinion there are better ways to spend the money right here in the US than waste $ 100’s of billions of dollars in a lost cause.

We need every dime that the Bush administration is wasting in defense spending and that money could be used instead to up grade the infrastructure of the American economy – and if we did that we also would create millions of jobs inside the US economy and would generate a lot more economic activity right here in the US.

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Oh, okay. So this is a anti-Bush thread. I thought you were serious
about some of the claims you have written about. Now I don't.

It would be interesting to know what race you are... Arab perhaps? Muslim?

 

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Version77: Oh, okay. So this is an anti-Bush thread

It would be interesting to know what race you are... Arab perhaps? Muslim?


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SouthAmerica: Bush is the president and if you consider everyone who does not agree with his policies and agenda – anti-Bush – Then….

I guess you also must believe that if someone is anti-Bush then he must be from another race An Arab, or even from out of space.

But the reality is that Bush was elected with a little over 50 million votes out of almost 210 million eligible American voters. Do you think that all 150 million people who did not vote for Bush in the last election are from another race – Arab – or religion – Moslem?

Here in New Jersey I know a lot of intelligent people who think that Bush is an idiot.

But the few people that I know who voted for Bush when I asked why – I was told that they voted for Bush because he is a born again Christian and he represents the wishes of God.

O.K. – Do I have to say anything else?

I rest my case.


PS: Last year I saw Peter Peterson (a well known republican) on television talking about his new book, and when he was asked about his opinion about George Bush – He said that he would not hire George Bush to be president even of one of his companies.


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