We Have Forgotten

In the goood old days when our threats came from a nation state is was a great deal easier to know how to respond to physical or non-physical attacks. But now we are dealing with a multitute of non-governmental groups and movements that transend national boundaries and often have a religious base, how do we respond without playing into their hands? If a terrorist group attacks the USS Cole in Yemen, do we attack the government and people of Yemen? At least in Afghanistan we had a government that was backing and protecting the group that attacked us that we could attack in return.

I get your point, but the basic ground rules have changed, and no government of a nation state is quite sure how to deal with an attack from numerically small outside groups that are willing to die in order to kill you.

It just demonstrates that having a large number of nukes does not equate to being safe, and that a small, determined group can cause a great deal of havoc when they are willing to die for their cause, no matter how warped and misguided.
It's summer and you can swat mosquitos all day, but their always seems to be more. We can try to kill them with chemicals before they become adults and bite us, but we risk poisoning our air, water and land. And then, of course, some of them become resistant to the poisons.

not easy..fully agree. iam shocked at how short the american memory is almost as short as the european, but not quite as bad..

I've posted on this several times, most recently here.

Key excerpt:

The threat of terrorism is indeed real. However, it is also extremely remote. How remote? Well, the odds of an American being killed in a terrorist attack on US soil are the same as those for a random high school football player being the winning quarterback in the Super Bowl one day.

Put another way, the average American stands an over one-in-two point five million chance of being killed in a terrorist attack here or abroad. Yet, the average American stands a one-in-6000 chance of being killed in an auto accident or a one-in-5000 chance in being killed as a pedestrian in a traffic accident.

In point of fact, you stand a several hundred times greater risk of dying from food poisoning than in a terrorist attack.

The fact is 9/11 has been a godsend for folks like Rob Port; it allows them to spew hate and fear across the internet and allows his political masters an excuse for trashing the Constitution.

Of course, judging by Rob Port's picture--it is pretty plain he falls into that obese category.

JG
was that 3 or 4 ad hominems - I lost track

You're in my thoughts as always my dearest

Jim Vaughey: I disagree. The last line was necessary on several levels.

First, obesity is a problem in the US. I forget what the numbers are but I wouldn't be surprised to find 25% (perhaps more) of Amercans are obese. And those numbers are trending in the wrong direction. This means you and I and everyone else gets to spend more in terms of healthcare costs.

Second, fine young men like Rob Port--who demand others fight in Iraq and other places (recently Rob Port has demanded the US attack North Korea, Iran, and Syria--I may be missing a few others) steadfastly believes he shouldn't have to serve in the military. The military is now finding their recruits and personnel to be mirroring the general population's weight problems.

JG
Just sarcasm - my you're slipping

Love you anyway