Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
I kind of miss Tom Ridge every so often. At least with Ridge you had the impression, if not fact, that the guy in charge was pretty harmless since he was way out of his league and in uncharted waters. Chertoff’s got some zealousness in him.
I like this part here:
Chertoff recognizes it has been more than six years since al Qaida launched the Sept. 11 attacks, but some experts say that’s how long it took to plan them, suggesting the U.S. may close in on another spectacular attempt by Osama bin Laden to topple the U.S. economy.
As the great Klingon warrior once said “You cannot tarnish a rusty blade”. Bin Laden toppling the economy would be like shooting out the streetlamps to make the sun go down.
But, as much as I dislike the guys at Fatherland Security, theres some merit to what they say. After all, theyve got billions of dollars to sink into investigating this sort of thing (and a vested interest in making sure something is going on so they have job security) so maybe theyre on to something. I do agree that the notion that we’re done with terroristic threats from the Middle Eastern crowd is highly unlikely. Theres too much going on around the world right now to think that.
It seems everyones focus right now is on the economy, which is understandable since it affects far more people directly than most terrorist acts. You can see the charred wreckage of a building in NYC and say thats terrible but it doesnt really impact your everyday life in Nebraska. On the other hand, when the economy tanks everyone in the US feels it everywhere. So, rightly or wrongly, the emphasis is on the economy right now and terrorism has been sort of pushed to the back burner. And, of course, thats when complacency comes into play.
So, I’ll say Chertoff is right on this. I still dont care for his agency, but when youre right youre right.
Jim’s Quote of the Day:
“The wheels have come off. Structured finance, which has been the key to this credit bubble, has broken down. We believe that confidence in structures, ratings, collateral, issuers, counterparties, et cetera, has all been lost. Therefore we are in a very precarious position. Credit has driven the economy and has driven markets. Credit has to grow year-over-year in this credit bubble environment in order for the economy to grow. With structured finance having broken down, in our opinion, there is no way that credit will grow year-over-year any longer.” – David Tice of the Prudent Bear Fund, as quoted by Welling @Weeden
The above was stolen without permission from the survivalblog.com. They way some see it, a bunch of terrorists bombing some buildings here and there will not destroy America. Financial collapse will. The current administration has run our economy into the ground and we are about to pay the price for our complacency. Hang on and keep up the good work.
Here’s the problem
We are headed for some real economic trouble even in the best case scenario. Now add to that a major terrorist attack on American soil and you literally have the straw that broke the camels back.
If that happens then you’ve got to wonder if Hugo Chavez and Iran wont see that as an opportunity to pile on. Of course at that point China will have no choice but to dump the dollar along with the whole rest of the world.
And then the entire country burns
al qaida
maybe see an attack by terrorists that bush2 needs for an iranian invasion. you have to remember who can afford terrorists to attack whom to get a favorable situation to re-act to.
9-11 was just a bit convient for bush2 to invade iraq oh? if you got the money and means you can create an incident blaming others while cashing in on the event for your own desires.
and 08, if it looks like the democrats might win, what may occur conviently for bush2 to declare “susphenions of elections” till the “emergency” is ever over?
there is a lot of money being made on war these days… Wildflower 08