A nutter is dead, but the drive for ratings goes on!
Posts Tagged ‘terrorism’
Shorter Discovery Channel Siege
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
“We’re Seriously Not Serious”
Saturday, May 8th, 2010Or so one must conclude after hearing Secretary of State Clinton warn of “serious consequences” if a terror attack on the US could be traced back to Pakistan.
The difficulty with such an obvious bluff is that last weekend’s terror attack was directly traceable to Pakistan, and there’s not much we can do, short of invading the country, to encourage the Pakistanis to defeat the Islamic extremists in their midst.
The Pakistani government’s afraid of a civil war, while the Pakistani military is still playing all sides against the middle in hopes that some advantage can be gained in a post-US Afghanistan.
Instead, we get yet another pointless, inside Washington State v. Defense argument, wherein the Defense Secretary suggests we’re ready to take orders as far as military assistance to Pakistan is concerned.
Will we cut off such assistance if the next Pakistan-based attack is more devastating? Will we declare war on Pakistan?
Of course not, so why engage in this kind of idiotic, defensive rhetoric? Is it to make the Administration sound tougher to voters in November?
The latest terrorist attack should suggest to our leaders and the American people that the Administration’s doing a pretty good job of defending the country against terrorism.
What’s still lacking is an intelligence community that can deliver the goods in terms of identifying, locating, and eliminating terrorist leaders inside Pakistan.
Gorilla asks: “Why not be a bit more offensive and ask Panetta’s boys and girls why they still can’t find their own shadows?”
More Lessons Of Terror
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010After yet another failed, fifth-rate attempt to blow up a used car, what have we learned?
1) Law enforcement works. The terrorist was tracked down and captured within a few days. Terrorism of this sort is essentially a law enforcement issue: military weaponry, torture, and a reduction in civil liberties makes no difference whatever in fighting terrorism.
2) Pakistan is the number one source of terrorists in the world. It has a dysfunctional government, a military that cannot be trusted, and we’re stuck with them. Sooner or later, we’ve got to decide whether we want to take the fight against terrorism into Pakistan, or attempt to contain the problem within Central Asia. Predator drones aren’t any more effective against terrorism than the Jonas Brothers.
3) We have to accept that sometimes the terrorists will get lucky; this time they didn’t.
4) Religious extremism is the greatest threat to freedom in the world today.
5) We need a new strategy, one that sees terrorism as a problem, one of many we don’t adequately address. Terrorism is not and has never been an existential threat to the US. Afghanistan and Iraq have been and are total failures; they do not address terrorism in any way. The US military has proven inept at nation building. The US intelligence community has not been sufficiently successful in tracking down and capturing terrorists. We’re fighting small, mostly ineffective groups of no-hopers and wasting trillions of dollars on defense systems that are wholly inadequate and wholly outdated for the job at hand. A bit of genuine accountability for these failures would be most welcome from our leaders, but the last 10 years have demonstrated convincingly that accountability is not part of the landscape in Washington.
Gorilla says: “Add your own lessons, and hope someone in power will eventually get an education!”
Amateurs Are Not Scary
Monday, May 3rd, 2010Another failed bombing attempt, this time in New York City!
The only thing remotely interesting about this amateurish nonsense is whether it comes from the extreme right-wing fringe.
Certainly it is this group that poses the greatest terrorist threat to the US.
Gorilla thinks: “The tea bags are full of gunpowder!”
101 Wahabis
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010Saudi Arabia rounds up another terror cell!
But the export of extremist Islam from the Kingdom goes on, so it’s difficult to know what to make of these terrorist cattle drives.
One hopes we’ll recognize that terrorism per se is a very minor threat to the United States, alas we’ll probably say it justifies all the AWACs the Saudis can eat.
Interestingly, the targets this time appear to be the Saudi oil fields.
Such an attack might get the US and other Western countries to come to their senses about dependence on unstable regimes for fossil fuels.
More likely, it would be a boon to the global armaments industry and another easy excuse for non-engagement in the Israel-Palestinian “peace process”.
Gorilla says: “Cruella still drives a low mileage deVille!”
Fear And Funding
Thursday, March 18th, 2010The formula still works on a bipartisan basis.
The latest CIA Director, whose agency has failed miserably to capture or even locate anyone in al-Qaeda’s top leadership, now says the terrorists are “on the run, but still coming after us”.
Putting aside the curious logic (which direction are they running?), what this says is that al-Qaeda was never a serious, existential threat to the United States or anyone else. They were and are a terrorist group who occasionally get lucky, but remain a very low-tech, very fifth-rate collection of psychopaths.
We’ve spent trillions on catching them and haven’t caught them. The chances of being killed by a terrorist are less than the chances of being killed by falling out of bed. But we must remain afraid and give the Pentagon a blank check to fail.
Gorilla asks: “When will we change fear and loathing to loathing of fear?”
Jihad Jane
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Well, a sillier terrorist plot could be imagined, but the tale of Jihad Jane is right up there!
In a nutshell, she plotted to kill an unidentified Swedish man and provided material support to terrorists, in the form of some fundraising, an arranged marriage and the theft of a passport.
These terrorists may or may not have been the group recently arrested in Ireland for plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who drew Mohammad as a dog.
Yes, it’s that ridiculous.
But for the authorities, Jihad Jane’s a godsend. Now that terrorists are recruiting hapless Americans to their cause, we can at last justify the billions spent tracking down a handful of very marginal people.
Gorilla says: “What about Tarzan? Didn’t I see him buying Saga Blue the other day?”
Kangaroos Win Out
Friday, March 5th, 2010Why is our country so afraid of the rule of law?
The Administration appears ready to reverse itself and go with a military tribunal in the case of 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Such tribunals so far have been little more than kangaroo courts.
Apparently, a 90 plus percent conviction rate isn’t good enough to stave off political disadvantage, so the cowardly way out is, as usual, the easy choice.
Gorilla says: “We are a country of laws, unless we feel like breaking them, then we’re a country of injustice!”
The Odds Of Terrorism Down Under
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Leaving aside the fact that Australia has never had a domestic terrorist attack, what are the odds that an Australian might be a terrorist?
Approximately 1 in 525,000.
Gorilla says: “Or slightly less than the odds of an Australian dying by falling out of bed”.
A Free Pass For White Christian Terrorists
Monday, February 22nd, 2010A disgruntled idiot in Texas (a state full of disgruntled idiots) engaged in an act of domestic terrorism last week, flying a plane into a building in Austin.
And this terrorist’s daughter says he’s a hero, not for having murdered an innocent person, which apparently was inappropriate and wrong, even according to her psychosis, but for having fought “injustice” committed by the government.
Irony of ironies, the terrorist’s daughter now lives in Norway, because she lost her job and health care there is better!
Let’s be clear: had he survived the attack and been anything other than a white Christian, our political leaders would want him tortured (see: the Christmas underwear bomber).
Gorilla says: “Unless we condemn all acts of terrorism, regardless of race, color, or creed, and all acts of torture, whether committed by our own or other governments, we are no better than and just as deranged as the nut jobs who attack us”.
