Americans do not have the commitment to see much of anything "thru" anymore . . . they are too busy eating junk food, enjoying a sedentary lifestyle, driving their gas-guzzling SUV's and drinking their Starbuck's Cafe Machiotto's to give a rats ass about Foreign Policy. They were far too engrossed in whether or not Monica Lewinsky was giving BJ's to Bill Clinton than whether or not our Airports and Commerical Airlines were safe and secure. Life is just one big game of "musical chairs" for the average American. No hard work, loyalty or commitment needed. Thus, the answer to your question remains reinforced by our very own history of world events. The answer is: No.
Well aside from the airports and commercial airlines being safe and secure, I agree with you Waggie. Btw, if you think the airlines are bad and airports, do not, I repeat do not, take a train! LOL. First of all, you could walk on a train with a nuclear warhead and nobody will question you. They don't even check your ID when you board the train, they just check to see you have a ticket. And security at the train station? LOL. Yeah a few rent a cops, thats it. Trust me, the airlines are not the problem, it's the trains. And it would be so much easier to detonate a bomb on a train then a plane. You could detonate the bomb at any point along the way such as Union Station in Chicago. Anyway I digress. Americans are very lazy for sure. But what bothers me more then just laziness is this attitude by many on the left that act as if we should just deal with problems in this country and turn a blind eye to problems around the world. What they don't realize is that those problems will become our problems soon enough. I'm not saying we should play supercop and solve all the worlds problems but I think it's in our interest to try to stabilize the middle east and no, it's not just about the oil.
In my opinion it boils down to the refusal among those on the left to recognize the existence of evil. I don't mean in any spiritual or religious sense, for I make no judgment on that one way or the other. Rather, I am referring to a value system that debases human life and thus makes no distinction between combatants and innocents, between adult men and women, children and the infirm. And the failure to acknowledge that evil in that sense exists despite all the evidence in history and present day, relegates our enemy in the mind of the liberal to someone who can be reasoned with. To someone who, with a hug and a sitdown over a latte at Starbucks, can be made a friend. To someone who, despite his own promise to do that very thing, doesn't really want to see every man, woman and child in this country butchered alive or wearing a muslim headdress. Hence, to the hopelessly naive on the left, we are all equivalent and there is no such thing as black and white. We are as bad as them and equally deserving of opprobrium for own "heinous misdeeds." This is nothing new and the same sort of naivete was on display among many who refused to recognize the evil of Nazism as their neighbors were hoarded up. Of course, many eventually came around to the reality of that evil. Unfortunately, it was not until they were standing before the gas chamber door.
Yeah, I agree. Sad, but true. I can't wait for the Presidential debates to start. I will try really hard not to laugh when I hear Kerry talk about making friends around the world and getting people to like us again. I know this is a serious issue and I shouldn't laugh about it, but with Kerry, it will be really really hard not to. But I will try.
My good friends at L-3 Communications were asked by the DOT just last week to launch a "pilot-program" for screening rail passengers for bombs. A unit of General Electric is also involved in the program. The 30-day pilot program is based outside Washington at the New Carrollton station where 1,000 passengers use commuter and Amtrak service daily. Some pretty interesting technology. Let's hope that it works, and works well! http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040504/security_rail_1.html
Okay, I hereby formally request that you be banned from this site, you cretinous moron. Baron, I've not made such a request before, but I believe it's warranted in this case. This is not the first instance of extremely offensive conduct on the part of this fool and I refuse to ignore it any longer. Honestly, it is becoming appalling how this site seems to attract more and more of his ilk. And while I'm against censorship, there are a handful of totally outside the pail imbeciles that are ruining the site and making it difficult to engage in any sort of discourse. But since I respect your judgment and the way you conduct yourself, I trust the right thing will be done here.
That this was done shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Remember Daniel Pearl? Another beheading, a Madrid-like incident, even another 9/11 scale attack would NOT turn this into a Kill-All-Suspected-Muslim Extremists type of a conflict. Bush and any other President would never authorize that kind of retaliation by our armed forces. You're talking about murder on a grand scale that would make My Lai look like a faux pas at a tea party. We do not want to start an all-out Holy War. I think the American public is more disgusted by this beheading than moved to calling for an eye for an eye.
That's just the problem. We're already in one, but no one in authority wants to recognize it. To do so would create huge problems in reconciling civil liberties with security. For example, we should not be granting any visas to males from any of the muslim extremist countries, yet we have allowed tens of thousands since 9/11. Mosques in this country routinely teach the same kind of hatred and violence that we wring our hands over in Pakistan, yet we allow the Saudis to continue to pump enormous amounts of money into them. Try to smuggle a Bible into Saudi Arabia and they will arrest you. We have had numerous wakeup calls. Perhaps like other societies that went soft and were overrun, we have lost the capacity to defend our way of life.