On December 7, 1941 the US fleet was attacked at an island outpost in the Pacific. The attack sank several of our ships and killed over 2,000 of our people. The US responded by declaring total war on the attackers. The government and the people, regardless of politics became galvanized with the sole purpose of pursuing a war that would only end when those that dared to attack us were utterly defeated. Every aspect of our every day lives was focused on that end. Three and a half years later, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers, sailors and airmen, and an industrial effort that the world had never seen, our enemy was subdued, never to attack us again.
On September 11, 2001, one of our greatest cities was attacked. Several of tallest building fell, killing over 3,000 of our citizens. How did we respond this time? Our people were certainly galvanized in our resolve to go after our attackers.
We knew exactly where they were, and one of our Los Angeles class attack submarines lay in the Gulf of Oman waiting for orders to attack the enemy bases with her cruise missiles. She waited for nearly 30 days.
The men and women in our military could hardly wait for their chance to avenge the attack on 9/11. Later that winter we invaded Afghanistan and when we had our enemy cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, our soldiers were chomping at the bit, ready to go in for the final kill. They knew it wasn't going to be easy, but they were utterly confident in the outcome. Why shouldn't they be-they were the best trained, best equipped fighting force the world had ever seen. They waited while the leadership of the country decided to arm the peasant militias of the areas, and have them do the dirty work. They simply took the hum-vees, guns and rockets home, while the enemy escaped into Pakistan and Iran. Then the military re-focuses to the sideshow in Iraq. A country that had no involvement in the attacks on our country. The head of the anti-terrorism unit of the NSA commented that the attack on Iraq after 9/11 would have been comparable to an attack on Mexico after Pearl Harbor.
We were told that one of the root causes of the attack was that our internal security agencies did not communicate well. It was found that the attackers and their intentions had been discovered by branches of the agencies, but that the information was lost because there was no system in place to share and collate the information so that the appropriate agencies could be alerted to the danger. That was over four years ago, folks, and guess what? After over a billion dollars spent on new, FAILED systems, we are no closer today to solving that problem than we were on 9/10/2001.
This is a National disgrace, and all Americans should be outraged over it, regardless of your party affiliation. Instead of appologizing for these failures we should be demanding remedies, not just lip service, but actual fixes-if the agencies can't handle it then contract it out.
The department of Homeland Security has turned out to be an expensive joke, as evidenced by the disaster in New Orleans. But it is really no joke, is it? Right after the attack on 9/11 the President told us that this was an attack on freedom, then he proceeded to dismantle our liberties with the so-called Patriot Act, practically acknowledging victory to our enemy.
On September 11, 2001, one of our greatest cities was attacked. Several of tallest building fell, killing over 3,000 of our citizens. How did we respond this time? Our people were certainly galvanized in our resolve to go after our attackers.
We knew exactly where they were, and one of our Los Angeles class attack submarines lay in the Gulf of Oman waiting for orders to attack the enemy bases with her cruise missiles. She waited for nearly 30 days.
The men and women in our military could hardly wait for their chance to avenge the attack on 9/11. Later that winter we invaded Afghanistan and when we had our enemy cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, our soldiers were chomping at the bit, ready to go in for the final kill. They knew it wasn't going to be easy, but they were utterly confident in the outcome. Why shouldn't they be-they were the best trained, best equipped fighting force the world had ever seen. They waited while the leadership of the country decided to arm the peasant militias of the areas, and have them do the dirty work. They simply took the hum-vees, guns and rockets home, while the enemy escaped into Pakistan and Iran. Then the military re-focuses to the sideshow in Iraq. A country that had no involvement in the attacks on our country. The head of the anti-terrorism unit of the NSA commented that the attack on Iraq after 9/11 would have been comparable to an attack on Mexico after Pearl Harbor.
We were told that one of the root causes of the attack was that our internal security agencies did not communicate well. It was found that the attackers and their intentions had been discovered by branches of the agencies, but that the information was lost because there was no system in place to share and collate the information so that the appropriate agencies could be alerted to the danger. That was over four years ago, folks, and guess what? After over a billion dollars spent on new, FAILED systems, we are no closer today to solving that problem than we were on 9/10/2001.
This is a National disgrace, and all Americans should be outraged over it, regardless of your party affiliation. Instead of appologizing for these failures we should be demanding remedies, not just lip service, but actual fixes-if the agencies can't handle it then contract it out.
The department of Homeland Security has turned out to be an expensive joke, as evidenced by the disaster in New Orleans. But it is really no joke, is it? Right after the attack on 9/11 the President told us that this was an attack on freedom, then he proceeded to dismantle our liberties with the so-called Patriot Act, practically acknowledging victory to our enemy.
, unlike Japan.
