Are you prepared for a mushroom cloud over a major American city? It is hard to imagine how it is possible
to protect our own people, as the world spins out of control. The talk that a home made dirty nuke is a real possibility,
deflects the prospects that a smart briefcase bomb is in the loop. Fear is a natural response to the unthinkable. However,
as long as a culture of refusal persists, the risks continue to escalate.
Refusal to admit linkage between an inept anti-terrorism policy and the epidemic increase in intensity of
militancy. Refusal to recognize that countries are incapable of eliminating opponents by mere force. Refusal to acknowledge
the reasons behind the motives of adversary and culpability (real or imaginary) that opponents assign to their foes. And most
of all, the refusal to admit that there are errors in thinking and methods of exerting power. No wonder that real security
is illusive and waning.
The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, marks a watershed departure from an unspoken arrangement. Hands
off overt elimination of leaders, has allowed for a shaky truce. The stakes have been raised. Open season on Arafat and Sharon
has just been declared. Do you really believe Condoleezza Rice when she denies suggestions by Hamas that Washington had given
Israel a green light for the assassination, or at least had advance warning?
If the Bush administration was really committed to the well-being of our citizens, why would they acquiesce
to Sharon’s liquidation of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin? The uproar in the streets will turn Palestine into a river of blood,
on a scale far beyond previous carnage.
Religious and civil wars are especially nasty, but revenge driven retaliation knows no bounds. The lesson
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taught that utter annihilation did not produce immediate surrender. Not until Emperor Hirohito spoke,
and ended the contention, did Japanese militarists capitulate. Is there any doubt that literally millions of casualties would
have been the toll from a full scale invasion? So what possible good can be foreseen by raising the level of intensity in
the Middle East? No one will gain greater security by this endless cycle of madness.
Pakistani journalist Hamad Mir interviewed Ayman al-Zawahri, in November 2001. Mr Mir reported that the al-Qaeda mastermind stated: “If you have $30 million, go to
the black market in central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist, and a lot of ... smart briefcase bombs are available”.
Do you really believe that such WMD are all accounted for and none have reached the hands of committed terrorists?
This is not an issue of perceived or actual appeasement! The prudent course is to diminish the intensity of
vengeance that results in an ever higher level of reprisal. Sharon has lost all proportion and now that the flood gates are
open, all the approved propaganda for publication coming out of the mass media, won’t relieve the very real danger that
America will reap. Paying the price for aligning with Israel, will have its day of reckoning. This message gets ignored because
the threat of personal suffering is not close enough to be experienced.
Until the destructive horror reaches a particular individual misery, Americans will continue to sleep walk
in an abstract fantasy of immunity from blowback. So let’s ask the really hard questions. It’s up to the sustainers
of insanity to defend that which they are exempt from suffering - at least up until now . . .
Is Sean Hannity willing to sacrifice his children in an evaporation of molecules on the altar of self righteous
and distorted arrogance? Idiocy is the standard that is most rewarded. Guaranteed terminal destruction is not a valid foreign
policy. The current road into the oblivion of crazed conceit cannot and will never provide an answer to preventing acts of
terror. The basic reason why eradication is senseless, is that it does not work. Like cockroaches, mankind continues to survive
to affirm that the next episode of inhumanity can reach even a greater scope and intensity.
What incentive or restraint keeps the dogs of war outside our shores? If you believe a global presence is
the best defense, you are clueless. Real security can be achieved when a country refuses to thrust a stick in the eye of the
adversary. Defusing the reasons that create foes is a sensible objective. Why can’t the United States learn the verdict
of history - true self interest is enhanced by creating good will. The inescapable retribution is only inevitable as long
as America retains an Israel First foreign policy.
Currently a morbid death is taking over. Our own essential interests demand that we extract ourselves, wash
our hands and walk away. What excuses will we hear when radiation contaminates our land? Can we avoid this outcome? Sure,
we can - by employing basic common sense. Open borders invite cancerous luggage. No slow death from disease, just one big
bang. The prospects that such devices are already stored and ready for use are strong. If they are on our soil, do you really
have any doubt that one will be used?
You can’t secure Brooklyn when you are scattered throughtout the world and not protecting your own back
yard. There are no lethal threats that can be delivered from hideouts in the Himalayas. The nuclear weapons that pose the
most serious danger need to be smuggled into the country. If you can’t find Saddam’s WMD, and you can’t
nab an ailing dialysis invalid or capture the strategic mastermind when surrounded, how will you stop the next generation
of homicide bombers?
This may be the last wake-up call, before a blast is triggered. You reduce the peril by improving domestic
security, at the point of entry. Remove the animosity from us, we need not be a surrogate target for the hatred of others.
Withdraw all aid and support from the region, nation building doesn’t work. Whether applied to a conquered country or
an insatiable socialist regime, all that has been bought is a bull’s eye for ground zero. Sharon proved again that he
is unstable. Bush remains silent, and in so doing becomes the extreme enabler of an orthodox madman. Add up the results! You
are being prepared for an ensuing detonation. The script for the blame has been written and the plan for counterstrike is
already in place. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Time is rapidly running out . . .
SARTRE - March 23, 2004
