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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 28 September 2001 | Vol II, No. 73 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 28 September 2001 | Vol II, No. 73 | ||
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In the news this week, we commend President George W. Bush for the extraordinary leadership he has shown in formulating our external and internal response to the current national security crisis. He has acted well within the parameters of great statesmanship -- determining friend and foe and authorizing our nation's specialized military and intelligence assets to begin the long and arduous task of overturning every stone in "Jihadistan" -- that borderless nation of Islamic extremists with global reach -- and killing every terrorist cockroach found thereunder.
"The American people must understand this war on terrorism will be fought on a number of fronts, in different ways," said the president. "The front lines will look different from the wars of the past."
Though accountability for the September 11 attack apparently still falls at the feet of Osama bin Laden, our sources indicate that he had significant support from Iraqi intelligence and logistical support from terrorist fronts in Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- who still have operational assets on U.S. soil.
President Bush is appropriately deliberate in determining our method of attack and choice of targets -- avoiding noncombatants while inflicting maximum pain and suffering on combatants and their rear echelon of support. While we still expect a show of force from the air -- reducing to fine powder any hole where bin Laden's al Qaeda cadre have ever stopped for shade -- the President has chosen to implement our most effective means of redress based on the cold and calculated Israeli model -- insertion of small special forces units to quietly bleed out anyone aligned with bin Laden.
Regarding those operations, we cautiously add this note: According to our military sources in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Peshawar, Pakistan, bin Laden's operatives suffered the consequences of several firefights with U.S. Special Forces six days ago -- we were asked, for obvious reasons, to provide no details about the locations. Our sources indicate that the rules of engagement were "unrestricted in contact with verifiable combatants." One of those night assaults produced a "significant number of enemy dead." There were no American casualties reported.
In addition to the search and destroy missions now underway in Afghanistan, we have initiated the lengthy process of exterminating other agents of destruction in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Libya. Oh, did we mention HAMAS? "The only way to deal with [terrorism] is to go after the terrorists ... and we must also go after the nations that are harboring and financing and supporting and facilitating and tolerating these terrorists," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Jihadistan has declared open war on the West -- and will not rest until all have been converted to Islam -- or left for dead. All the domestic precautions imaginable may inhibit some acts of terror -- but they will not stop them all. The only method to contain the risk of that threat is to prejudicially eliminate its source -- very difficult to accomplish but much more effective as a mitigating factor than homeland defense. We must make no distinction between the terrorists and the states that support them -- and crush every discernible component of these networks. If you want to eradicate roaches, you kill all of them -- leave none behind to spawn a new generation.
We must answer terror with terror -- and answer with greater volume. We were reminded of a great line from the film "The Untouchables" when copper Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery) says: "You wanna get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way!" Bin Laden has killed thousands of Americans. We must send him and anybody who has ever drawn a breath in support of his cause to the morgue. That's the Jihad way.
While there will be American casualties, this will be no constricted "Desert One" rescue operation like Jimmy Carter half-launched in Iran. Nor will we follow Bill Clinton's example of limiting small arms ammo to Special Forces units attempting to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed. The current deployment of Special Forces has all the trademarks of Ronald Reagan's determination -- hit them back harder and scatter them like the rats they are. Let them know that the price for attacking the world's engine of liberty is sudden death.
Mr. Bush is also correct to keep our ultimate objective front and center -- to support liberty and freedom for those peoples now suffering under the tyrannical thumb of oppressive regimes like the Taliban, while exterminating these extremist Islamic vermin wherever they are holed up -- a "bullets and bread" campaign.
To our fellow American patriots on their way or now in harm's way -- those under the U.S. Army Special Operations Command -- Rangers from the 75th, the 160th SOAR, Delta teams and the Green Berets (whatever color their covers...), the 82nd and 101st Airborne, and other branch special ops units joining the assault -- we say GOD BLESS YOU and your families! And again, for units of the British SAS joining the operation.
[ The Federalist ]
It's harder to victimize armed citizens.
BY JOHN R. LOTT JR.
President Bush yesterday unveiled a plan to tighten airline security, ranging from employing the National Guard at airports to place more marshals on flights. Those are important steps, but they won't be enough, especially since no one knows where the terrorists will strike next. The only adequate response is to encourage more ordinary, responsible citizens to carry guns, as Israel has done.
Screening at airports, while important, will always be inadequate; terrorists will always figure some way to circumvent the controls-for instance, by bribing airport employees. Strengthening cockpit doors is probably a good idea, but given current airline design it may create dangerous differences in air pressure between the cockpit and cabin. In any case, the door must be opened sometime, to allow pilots to go to the bathroom or get food.
The marshals program is more promising. Empirical research by Bill Landes at the University of Chicago found that between a third and a half of the drop in airplane hijackings during the 1970s could be attributed to the introduction of armed U.S. marshals on planes and an increased ability to catch and punish hijackers.
But to put just one marshal aboard every daily flight in the U.S. would require at least 35,000 officers--far more than currently work for the FBI, Secret Service and U.S. marshals combined (17,000). And one marshal might not be enough to foil a whole gang of hijackers, of the kind used by Osama bin Laden. Clearly it will take a long time to deploy enough marshals.
There are things we can do in the meantime. There are about 600,000 active state and local law enforcement officers in the U.S. today. They are currently forbidden from bringing their guns on airplanes. That should change. They should even be given discount fares if they fly with their guns. Most pilots have also had military experience. The request of their union to arm pilots should be granted; this is what El Al has done for a long time.
Fears of having guns on planes are misplaced. The special, high-velocity handgun ammunition used on planes packs quite a wallop but is designed not to penetrate the aluminum skin of the plane. Even with regular bullets, the worst-case outcome would simply be to force the plane to fly at a lower altitude, where the air pressure is higher.
The use of guns to stop terrorists shouldn't be limited to airplanes. We should encourage off-duty police, and responsible citizens, to carry guns in most public places. Cops can't be everywhere.
In Israel, about 10% of Jewish adults have permits to carry concealed handguns. To reach Israel's rate of permit holding, Americans would have to increase the number of permits from 3.5 million to almost 21 million. Thirty-three states currently have "right-to-carry" laws, which allow the law-abiding to obtain a permit if they are above a certain age and pay a fee. Half of these states require some training. We should encourage more states to pass such law, and possibly even subsidize firearms training.
States that pass concealed handgun laws experience drops in violent crimes, especially in multiple victim shootings--the type of attack most associated with terrorism. Bill Landes and I found that deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell by 80% after states passed right-to-carry laws.
Passing right-to-carry laws might even deter terrorist attacks. True, some terrorists are suicidal, but they still want to cause maximum carnage. They know the "return" on their terrorism would rapidly diminish to the vanishing point if faced with gun-wielding "victims."
[ Wall Street Journal ]
"Hanoi Jane" Fonda advised Americans Thursday to "try to understand the underlying causes" of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed 6,700 of her fellow citizens, adding that it would be a mistake for the U.S. to retaliate militarily against the perpetrators.
Discussing the attacks on an Atlanta radio station, the former actress and ex-wife of CNN chief Ted Turner said she was concerned about the emotional reaction to the disaster.
"It's hard to be hopeful, frankly," she told Mix 105.7 FM. "What concerns me very much is the saber rattling and the calls for vengeance."
"I think it has to be dealt with as a crime," the one-time exercise guru counseled. "And when there's a crime, you don't bomb a city or a country - you use very, very clever intelligence, undercover-type operations to get the criminals and punish them, and then you try to understand the underlying causes of the crime."
Fonda's comments have not been reported outside Atlanta, where they caused an uproar on talk radio station WGST on Friday.
She earned the moniker "Hanoi Jane" in 1971 at the height of the Vietnam War, when she traveled to North Vietnam, donned a Communist military uniform and pretended to shoot down U.S. pilots while manning an anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi.
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