A time to be vigilent...
One of the oft repeated questions in the last few days has been "Where did our intelligence break down?"
Those of us who have participated in this board over the last few days have seen several messages that had been placed on the Internet that were highly questionable and we have reported them to the authorities -- after the fact.
Would reporting those messages before the tragedy have made a difference? Probably not... but who knows. No doubt some are simply crackpots and idiots. However, others are not. We, as members of the electronic community need to keep our eyes open and be vigilent as we read the posts on the boards.
We need to understand that in this world there are countless people who have less than honorable intentions. There are those in our virtual community who are simply evil. Likewise, there are those who a, shall we say, less than stable and those who have very specific agendas.
It is a sad practice within this country to leave the burden of protection to the government. To shirk our responsibility as citizens and humans and then to subsequently pass the blame on to others.
The truth of the matter is that it is our individual responsibility to ourselves, our families, our communities and our freedom to accept personal responsibility for defending ourselves and our way of life.
This we can do with a minimal effort. We need only keep our eyes open for potential threats and bring those possibilities to the proper authorities when they are encountered. In so doing, we are not relying on our government to protect us, rather, we are assisting our government. As a citizen, that is entirely our responsibility.
As President Kennedy so succinctly put it: "Ask not what your Country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your Country."
The rhetoric and public sentiment over the last few days leaves no doubt but that we are headed into a war. This will not be a three day trouncing of some tactical target. It will not be a surgical air strike. It will not be conventional warfare as we have come to know it.
It will be long, drawn out and bloody. The enemies to civilization place no value on human life, civilitiy or morals. They have an agenda and they are willing to meet their maker in the effort to affect their mission.
These people are not crazy and they are not stupid. They are intelligent, well organized, commited and fanatical in their beliefs. They will stop at no end to achieve their goals and the civilized world will certainly face horrendous losses in their military, civilian populations, infrastructure and economies not to mention their way of life, sense of freedom and security.
It can not be denied that organized terrorism must be dealt with and erradicated. However, reality dictates that we must understand that in this endeavor we are playing into the hands of the terrorists. In seeking to destroy them, we sever to fuel their resolve and their hatred.
We must know and understand that we will be facing an enemy who is faceless and hiding in the shadows of our own back yards. That this enemy will not create battle lines and will not stand toe to toe with us in uniform. He will not put up an offensive and he will not defend a position.
This enemy will strike at our homes, our heart and our loved ones. He will target our will, not our military. He will seek to inflict the maximum collateral damage, not a tactical maneuver against a military force. His victims will not be pieces of military hardware and uniformed soldiers.
His goal will be to kill our mothers, our Grandparents, our children and our leaders. He will seek to do so in the most violent and vile manner. He will seek to break our will and our resolve by attacking our bleeding hearts. He will seek to bring our to our knees by revolting us.
We can not permit this to happen. We must realize that like it or not, we are now in day three of World War III -- This will not be a war like any that has come before. It is a global conflict that we can not now wrap our heads around.
It will be painful. It will be expensive. It will cost us dearly in countless ways. However, it is a war that must now be fought and it is a war that can have no surrender. There will be no unconditional surrender signed on an aircraft carrier. This war must, and will, go on until not just until the enemy has given up... this battle will wage until the enemy has been completely and utterly destroyed.
As citizens of a civil world, I do not know that we have the resolve to face such an epic and catastrophic event as we are now facing. However, it is coming and we must steel ourselves to have the resolve to endure the hardships and the losses it will entail.
As participants in and witnesses to these events, we must each do our part to ferret out the enemy. We must peer into the shadows, look around each corner and be ever mindful that our enemy does not wear a uniform, does not move in columns through the countryside and does not look you in the eye. We must do our part and can not ask our governments and our militaries to do it for us.
In this war, each and every person on the street and in their homes is a soldier on the front line.
Scott.
AI
