Terrorist attack on the United States

[macmeal]

Originally Posted by bily4

Kaintuck I am not trying to politicize; I am trying to demonstrate the fear is in fact not legitimate. If the point of the post is we should all be ready for an imminent terrorist nuclear attack, I would simply say that fear is way overblown and is similar to Cherkoff's "gut feelings" about an increased terror threat. It plays into the Bush strategy of keeping everybody afraid so they do not ask too many questions about their ridiculous policies. As far as what can we do to be prepared?

A. We can build bunkers and live in the middle of nowhere, until we run out of money.

B. We can keep a limited amount of canned goods, water, first aid equipment, communications gear, personal protection in our houses and live our lives. Which is a good idea anyway in the much more likely scenario of a hurricane or earthquake.

If there is something else I am missing here I apologize, and I will not interfere politically with your disaster plans any more in this thread.

The mitigating factor here is human nature. Statistically, we are many times more vulnerable to death by "natural" causes than by terrorism. Insurance companies could no doubt make a "killing" if they sold "terrorism policies"- they'd likely almost NEVER have to pay a claim.
The human mind, though doesn't always respond to logic. It is well known in psychological circles that losing a loved one (say, a daughter) to a car accident, or to an illness, tragic as it is, is nowhere near as devastating as having a daughter killed by a rapist. Psychologically, the second scenario is far more devastating to the family,
Similarly, knowing that "X number" of Americans will die in hurricanes and plane crashes next year", provokes a much milder reaction than having to cope with the fact that a much smaller number will die when they least expect it, through the actions of unseen cowards, who deliberately chose to target and kill them. Much different situation. It takes an especially "cool head" to take this into account when planning for this event....

[KAINTUCK]

Really didn't mean to insut you bily 4.
However I must have to say that it seems to me that it is revealed in your posting, i.e. Cherkoffs "gut feeling" that you have certain prejudices that are really unfounded regards the currrent administration. You may hate it for whatever your reasons and probably you and I could find some common ground on some of those reasons.
But, take for instance your seemed ridicule of Chertoff. Now whether you are Republican, Independent, or Democrat, there are some things that have to meet the test without political ramification. I happended to work in Navy Intelligence as a lad and I can tell you that there are things that never meet the eye of a civilian that have been going on for many years. Not because of knowing anything current ,but because of understanding at least one small piece of that "need to know world" I can tell you with certainty that here is a well intentioned guy regardless of his politics.
You may think he has an ulterior motive and I don't have the information to know that he doesn't. However, you have called me out once before on the premise of fear mongering.
My position in life is that I want to see "everyone "do good. Not just me, though I like that too, but you and the downtrodden and those that do much better than me, which in a relative sense, doesn't take a helluva lot.
Frankly though, it just mesmerizes me that because of political fraternization, there are people in this world that would rather see us all go down than to see the political opposition succeed. I have every confidence that this is true of the political representation of Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, and Clinton. For this reason a democrat can and never will get my vote.
Now that little speech is not for you bily4, but I would say -
beware who you follow.
I reject the narcissistic power mongering of the left when I believe we are indeed in peril and many facts lead me to that analysis.
Although I respect and admire the wonderful aspects of technology, their is a certain element of social de-evolution, that comes with it, that makes me wonder if we will survive the latter.

[bily4]

Kaintuck just a couple comments...

-I am not and never was insulted by any of your posts.

- I did not intend to call you out for fear mongering...I just wanted to point out the remote probabilities...in real life...of what you are hypothesizing.

- I have been in the military and understand about "need to know". Perhaps Chertoff is as an individual an honorable guy...let's just say his public performance has been less than confidence inspiring. At best in my mind he is being the "good soldier" like Colin Powell and acting as a lap dog for this administration in their efforts to mislead our fine country.

- I am not particularly fond of any of the people you mention on the Democratic side. They are all against the Iraq war however...(as are many Republicans, which many around here never seem to mention)...and that is good enough for me at the moment.

I too agree these are perilous times. Only a mental midget would deny this. I would however humbly suggest that the actions of Bush,Cheney and Co. have imperiled our great nation much more than helped it. We are now isolated without the good will of the world and our former allies. And at some time we will need that good will, as much as we like to think we are able to do everything by ourselves.
The alqueda is now as strong as it was since 9/11. That is an incredible statement. Why? Because we let them slip through our fingers in Afghanistan... and got immersed in a civil war quagmire of Biblical proportions that had nothing...at all... to do with 9/11.

[roanoker 4]

I really like the one who thinks a "dirty bomb" really won't be so bad, so we can all relax. I guess I must be a real "wacko" here in the Blue Ridge Mtns, about 3 hrs from DC, who thinks otherwise. The good news is that with some
education and survival skills, we can survive the inevitable. The next question is do we want to see the aftermath and destruction and would we want to continue to live in such a place? I like the one about Mexico then just takiing back the southwest, it sounds logical to me. I'm boning up on my spanish anyway.