B
Bruzilla
Guest
Speaking of "knowing your enemy", it amazes me how little people who are trying to make a case for, or against, the Department of Homeland Security's efforts know about terrorists!
First off, terrorists are not an invading army. They are not driven by warplans of attack and counter-attack until an objective, strategic or tactical, is held. Their goal is to influence people through the use of fear. It should come as no surprise that there have been no attacks since 9/11. It should come as no surprise that no more planes have been hijacked and flown into buildings. Terrorist operations do not lend themselves to attack-reattack scenarios. They are best done in small, but dramatic, ways, spread out over time. After 9/11, some of us allowed ourselves to find boogeymen terrorists lurking at every mosque, standing in line wanting to get their driver's license picture with their veils on, and everywhere else there were people of the Islamic faith. I remember how many of you on this very forum were actually worried that some Iraqi/Islamic doctors in Calvert County were a threat! All you did was carry the water for Osama and his pals. They planted the seed, you'all did the rest.
The other key issue with terrorists is that they don't have a homeland in most cases, and rely on friendly governments to take them in, support them, provide weapons and space, etc. Up until 2001, you had a lot of countries willing to do this: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea, etc. We knew they were there, we knew that the countries harboring these terrorists had declared hostilities of one type or another against the US, yet we couldn't do anything about them. That all changed after 9/11, and it changed in three ways: First, Bush went into Afghanistan and Iraq, and eliminated the governments supporting the terrorists (of all kinds, not just Al Quaeda.) Next, other countries who had been openly supporting terrorists found that this was no longer a practical thing to do and either eliminated or greatly reduced their support. And third, national leaders of these countries, who had never had reservations about loudly declaring war, or calling for Jihhad, against the US for the purposes of riling up their people learned that this was not a smart thing to do either as Bush showed that he took a declaration of war or hostilities quite seriously.
So, we know that terrorists rely on small-scale operations designed to inflict maximum fear, and need external support to remain viable. What can the DHD do to counter them? The real answer is really nothing. Dick Marchenko (sp), one of the founders of SEAL Team 6, was once tasked to attack a naval nuclear weapons facility. On the day of the start of the exercise, the base's security forces went on full alert and made the base impregnable! Marchenko and his men sat out in the hills, watched the goings on, and slept. For days, the security folks ran themselves ragged waiting for the attack, while Marchenko and his men slept, ate, and relaxed. By the fourth day, the security troops were tired, unmotivated, and ready to call it quits. That was when Marchenko and his men attacked. They made it in, "destroyed" their targets, and extracted with minimal casualties.
In situations like this, the offense always has the upper hand. If you start inspecting airplanes, they'll put a bomb in a ship. Inspect ships? They'll use a train. Inspect trains too? They'll use a bus. Inspect buses? They'll use an ambulance. Inspect ambulances? They'll use a school bus. Inspect school buses? They'll use a POV. And what are we suppossed to do? Expend our GNP on stopping and searching every plane, ship, train, bus, ambulance, school bus, or POV on the road? Just so they can buy a retired police car, put fake markings on it, drive it past the roadblocks and blow it up?
There is absolutely no defensive plan, that any extraordinary genius in our country can come up with, that can't be worked around by a half-competant terrorist. The only way to stop terrorists and really prevent future attacks is to kill them in place: both physically and financially. When you find a cell, kill them. When you find a source of their funding, stifle it. And lastly, do everything you can to give pause to anyone who thinks it would be a good idea to support terrorism. Doing those three things will do far more to prevent terrorist attacks than all the container inspections, baggage screeners, and national ID cards in the World.
First off, terrorists are not an invading army. They are not driven by warplans of attack and counter-attack until an objective, strategic or tactical, is held. Their goal is to influence people through the use of fear. It should come as no surprise that there have been no attacks since 9/11. It should come as no surprise that no more planes have been hijacked and flown into buildings. Terrorist operations do not lend themselves to attack-reattack scenarios. They are best done in small, but dramatic, ways, spread out over time. After 9/11, some of us allowed ourselves to find boogeymen terrorists lurking at every mosque, standing in line wanting to get their driver's license picture with their veils on, and everywhere else there were people of the Islamic faith. I remember how many of you on this very forum were actually worried that some Iraqi/Islamic doctors in Calvert County were a threat! All you did was carry the water for Osama and his pals. They planted the seed, you'all did the rest.
The other key issue with terrorists is that they don't have a homeland in most cases, and rely on friendly governments to take them in, support them, provide weapons and space, etc. Up until 2001, you had a lot of countries willing to do this: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea, etc. We knew they were there, we knew that the countries harboring these terrorists had declared hostilities of one type or another against the US, yet we couldn't do anything about them. That all changed after 9/11, and it changed in three ways: First, Bush went into Afghanistan and Iraq, and eliminated the governments supporting the terrorists (of all kinds, not just Al Quaeda.) Next, other countries who had been openly supporting terrorists found that this was no longer a practical thing to do and either eliminated or greatly reduced their support. And third, national leaders of these countries, who had never had reservations about loudly declaring war, or calling for Jihhad, against the US for the purposes of riling up their people learned that this was not a smart thing to do either as Bush showed that he took a declaration of war or hostilities quite seriously.
So, we know that terrorists rely on small-scale operations designed to inflict maximum fear, and need external support to remain viable. What can the DHD do to counter them? The real answer is really nothing. Dick Marchenko (sp), one of the founders of SEAL Team 6, was once tasked to attack a naval nuclear weapons facility. On the day of the start of the exercise, the base's security forces went on full alert and made the base impregnable! Marchenko and his men sat out in the hills, watched the goings on, and slept. For days, the security folks ran themselves ragged waiting for the attack, while Marchenko and his men slept, ate, and relaxed. By the fourth day, the security troops were tired, unmotivated, and ready to call it quits. That was when Marchenko and his men attacked. They made it in, "destroyed" their targets, and extracted with minimal casualties.
In situations like this, the offense always has the upper hand. If you start inspecting airplanes, they'll put a bomb in a ship. Inspect ships? They'll use a train. Inspect trains too? They'll use a bus. Inspect buses? They'll use an ambulance. Inspect ambulances? They'll use a school bus. Inspect school buses? They'll use a POV. And what are we suppossed to do? Expend our GNP on stopping and searching every plane, ship, train, bus, ambulance, school bus, or POV on the road? Just so they can buy a retired police car, put fake markings on it, drive it past the roadblocks and blow it up?
There is absolutely no defensive plan, that any extraordinary genius in our country can come up with, that can't be worked around by a half-competant terrorist. The only way to stop terrorists and really prevent future attacks is to kill them in place: both physically and financially. When you find a cell, kill them. When you find a source of their funding, stifle it. And lastly, do everything you can to give pause to anyone who thinks it would be a good idea to support terrorism. Doing those three things will do far more to prevent terrorist attacks than all the container inspections, baggage screeners, and national ID cards in the World.