duh---just a mayybee it will be built in the USA . ever tink of tat ? just keep tinking of flyin boats. LoL jACk
Guys. guys, guys, listen. The nuclear weapons are already here. All they have to do is go after our nuclear plants. Why go through the trouble of shipping them over here. Also I think spending a dime on port security is a joke. I really don't think terrorists are going to fly into any more buildings or set off any bombs or even poison our water. I know I might be in the minority on this but I don't care. I think the future of terrorism is computer based. They can attack us from their living rooms in the middle east. I believe that the route they will choose in the future is economic terrorism. They will go after our banks, our stocks exchanges, our airports, our electronic grids, anything they can gain access to through a computer. That is what the scary part is. As technology evolves, they can attack us from 10,000 miles away. They don't need to sneak across any borders or ship crates into our ports. The middle east is fighting a war against capitalism. That is what they want to destroy. They would much rather see our markets crash, watch us sink into a massive depression, 20% unemployment rates, sky high interest rates. They would love to see us crumble by the very system that brought us to power. Once you guys understand this, you'll shut up about domestic security and securing our ports. Wasted money if you asked me.
To me it just seems so obvious what the next target will be - a cruise ship hauling Americans - BWTFDIK. Geo.
It bugs me how the news media always assumes terrorists will use low-level radioactive material in their dirty bombs. http://www.geocities.com/hssandhu2000/nuclear_waste.html
I really do have a problem with Port Security and the fact that the Bush Administration still fails to provide the funding to make sure that our Homeland Security Department under Tom Ridge is able to do its job, properly. As Trader5287 just pointed out above, a cruise ship full of Americans could be a very easy target . . . Moreover, I still think that our Ports are extremely vulnerable since that is where much of this country's commerce goes on. Just think that would happen if a large vessel was blown up with explosives down in the Port of Long Beach, shutting down that Port and its cargo container shipping traffic for weeks. Do you have any idea how much of our county's GDP goes thru that particular Port? In 2003 alone, the Port of Long Beach's shipping terminals moved the equivalent of nearly 4.7 million container units! Nearly $90 billion in trade moved through the port in 2002. If you combine both the Port of Long Beach and that of it's separately operated next-door neighbor - - - the Port of Los Angeles - - - the San Pedro Bay ports would rank as the world's THIRD BUSIEST container cargo ports after only Hong Kong and Singapore. Sorry Mav, but I really do believe that our Coast Guard needs all of the help it can get and I am sick and tired of hearing about how cheap our country is being when it comes to the lack of funding for our Port and Waterway security. So, instead of spending $85 billion on the war in Iraq, it would have been nice to be spending a little bit more than $500 million on our Nation's Port Security! The Ports of Long Beach and LA are quite simply, an accident waiting to happen.
I hear you but I believe 100% that the physical attacks on this country by Al Qaida or any other terrorist groups are over. That's not to say there won't be any more in the future by other groups or other crazy individuals. But I think I have a good idea of what Al Qaida is trying to do this country and the western world. Once you understand what it is that they want and what they believe in, then you will understand that blowing things up serves no real purpose for them. Sure they could blow up a ship in our port. But you know what else they could do? They could hack into our national airspace and cause havoc with our airwaves. They could wreak havoc on our financial markets. They could spread viruses all over our country that could literally cripple our entire country by shutting down computers in every state, every city, every building. I mean the things they could do our countless. That is why we have to be aggressive in going after them. We can't just sit here and wait for them to make a move. I personally think any money spent on protecting our borders more then they already are would be a waste. But like I said, I think I am in the minority opinion on this one. Remember something here, these people have lost 70% to 80% of their organization. They really need to use their resources wisely and efficiently. Trying to blow up a ship in our port would not serve that function. I would rather spend that 500 million you propose on that on beefing up our intelligence again. Bill Clinton gutted our intelligence agency. We really need to focus our money and time in this area again. That will protect us much more then checking cargo ports. You do realize that a single person could walk into this country with as much as a small container of explosives that could do 10 times the damage that any bomb in a cargo container. But like I said, I think you are not truly understanding what the purpose is behind their attacks. If you think these are just a bunch of ragheads that ride camels that blow things up in the night and yell hee haw then maybe I could recommend some good books for you to read. I can assure, physical destruction is not what they are seeking. They want to end capitalism. They see it as the biggest threat to their society and values. This is why I always get a big chuckle out of those that can't see the connection between Iraq and Al Qaida. Hell the entire middle east outside of Israel believes this. They would all love to see our way of life crumble. It isn't just one country or one terrorist group or Bin Laden. It's the eastern world against the western world. But hey, this is just one man's opinion.
Mav, I agree with you totally about the Western vs Eastern philosophical battle. As for the $500 million that I mentioned . . . It wasn't a proposal on my part. It is in fact, the entire amount of money that the Administration is using to secure our Ports with, vs the $3.7 billion that it is funding Aviation with. I guess the difference being that airline passengers can vote, and cargo containers can't. :eek:
Personally I think that the money we are spending on airline security is a waste too. They are not going to hijack any more planes. Although, don't get me wrong, I think air marshals are a good idea. We have too many drunk and rowdy airline passengers and we should have had these air marshalls in the skies a long time ago. But this is not about protecting us from terrorists, but rather from ourselves. Also something else I would like to add that I forgot to mention in the previous post. Think about this for a second. Right now, Al Qaida has exactly what they want. They sucker punched us on 9/11 and drew us into a fight. So we go and attack afghanistan and Iraq. We spend enormous amounts of money on domestic security, an enormous amount of money on Iraq, and we pissed off a lot of people in the world. Now think about this, if they attack us again in our country, the very support they do have right now from the UN and from Europe and Russia qould be gone. See, the world would start to feel sorry for us if we had ships being blown up, ports exploding, so and so on. That is the very reason why they can't attack us here again physically. Because they will then have France and Germany and Russia joining our side and probably committing troops to the middle east and funding. This is exactly what they DON'T want. They want to have as much of the world against us as possible. They cannot accomplish this feat if they attack us again on our soil. Make sense? But I digress. I say we should cut the funding for homeland security, don't secure the borders, and tell them to go f*ck themselves and call their bluff. I would invite them into this country with open arms. I would even roll out the proverbial red carpet. And after they so much as they blow up a hot dog stand in NY, I would turn that little region of theirs they call the middle east into top soil. That's my .02