Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Point of No Return by Thomas Sowell
The writer of this article brings up some salient point.
Let me back up for a second.
This article was quoted at length today by Rush Limbaugh on his show. It was included in his daily "Stack of Stuff", the source material that he reads, daily, to prep for his show.
Back to the article, itself.
Mr. Sowell references what has been going on around us for 4+ years. He brings up some specifics, like the kidnapping of Jan Carroll, journalist with the Christian Science Monitor; Iran pushing towards nuclear weapons; the not-so-recent beheading of other kidnapped Westerners; riots, protests, death threats, and attacks on embassies, because of a series of cartoons, some of which the antagonists created.
He left out: riots in France, because the gendarme had the gall to attempt to arrest criminals of Islamic persuasion; bombings of mass transit systems in Spain and Britain; etc.
What consumes the news cycle, and the attention of our national leaders?
What has had our attention, recently?
Justice Alito's former membership in an alumni group that might have, once, allowed someone with a vaguely racist sentiment to voice an opinion in their magazine ... as opposed to Senator Ted Kennedy's continued membership in a Harvard group that continues to exclude women.
Court cases and news stories about government officials leaking classified information that required that the sources, and news agencies leak classified information.
"Domestice wiretapping" that is focused not on our citizens, but our enemies.
National figures shooting snide comments at each other while make remarks at a funeral.
Maybe, I am too close to the situation. Maybe, I have had too many friends and family serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe, I have known too many that have died there. Maybe, I have too many friends there in harm's way that could still die.
Then again, maybe, I remember Osama bin Laden declaring on the West, and then acting on it. Maybe, I remember that he or his proxies has acted on that in Spain, Britain, Bali and the US. Maybe, I sat and listened to Senator Patrick Leahy announce on an MSNBC broadcast, in an attempt to discredit the NSA intelligence program, that the NSA had intercepted, at least, 5,000 calls between al Quaeda operatives or confederates and persons within the United States, since the program's inception.
I could go on a diatribe, but I won't. I will just point out some salient points.
The 20 9/11 terrorists spent considerable time in the US before September 11th. We know, now, that they made multiple calls in the Middle East and Europe.
The question is: How many calls did they have to make to pull off 9/11?
Are you willing to gamble that it took more than a total of 5,000 calls, total?
My guess is that it took, significantly, fewer.
So, just how many 9/11's can you plan with 5,000 calls?
Let me back up for a second.
This article was quoted at length today by Rush Limbaugh on his show. It was included in his daily "Stack of Stuff", the source material that he reads, daily, to prep for his show.
Back to the article, itself.
Mr. Sowell references what has been going on around us for 4+ years. He brings up some specifics, like the kidnapping of Jan Carroll, journalist with the Christian Science Monitor; Iran pushing towards nuclear weapons; the not-so-recent beheading of other kidnapped Westerners; riots, protests, death threats, and attacks on embassies, because of a series of cartoons, some of which the antagonists created.
He left out: riots in France, because the gendarme had the gall to attempt to arrest criminals of Islamic persuasion; bombings of mass transit systems in Spain and Britain; etc.
What consumes the news cycle, and the attention of our national leaders?
What has had our attention, recently?
Justice Alito's former membership in an alumni group that might have, once, allowed someone with a vaguely racist sentiment to voice an opinion in their magazine ... as opposed to Senator Ted Kennedy's continued membership in a Harvard group that continues to exclude women.
Court cases and news stories about government officials leaking classified information that required that the sources, and news agencies leak classified information.
"Domestice wiretapping" that is focused not on our citizens, but our enemies.
National figures shooting snide comments at each other while make remarks at a funeral.
Maybe, I am too close to the situation. Maybe, I have had too many friends and family serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe, I have known too many that have died there. Maybe, I have too many friends there in harm's way that could still die.
Then again, maybe, I remember Osama bin Laden declaring on the West, and then acting on it. Maybe, I remember that he or his proxies has acted on that in Spain, Britain, Bali and the US. Maybe, I sat and listened to Senator Patrick Leahy announce on an MSNBC broadcast, in an attempt to discredit the NSA intelligence program, that the NSA had intercepted, at least, 5,000 calls between al Quaeda operatives or confederates and persons within the United States, since the program's inception.
I could go on a diatribe, but I won't. I will just point out some salient points.
The 20 9/11 terrorists spent considerable time in the US before September 11th. We know, now, that they made multiple calls in the Middle East and Europe.
The question is: How many calls did they have to make to pull off 9/11?
Are you willing to gamble that it took more than a total of 5,000 calls, total?
My guess is that it took, significantly, fewer.
So, just how many 9/11's can you plan with 5,000 calls?
