USS New York what a waste...
Someone sent me a photo of the new USS NEW YORK. Well, I thought about it and had to reply to the email. Below is what I wrote.
I live in New York and was in the city on 9/11, it's also my youngest son's birthday. My oldest was going to college downtown that day and called me on his cell while watching the towers burn from the roof of his school. He soon ran towards the buildings photographing everything he saw as he ran. As the first tower tumbled into the growing and massive dust cloud he turned and ran uptown and eventually walked all the way to our apartment on east 57th street. We all had nightmares for many months afterwards. That morning we had guests visiting us from London. They are a young couple with a one year old baby girl. The trauma of that day will remain with us forever. It was truly a defining moment in the nation's history.
Since then I have been astonished at how the tragedy has been exploited and a clear perspective has been thwarted, lost by so many people and opinions and yet we who live in New York remain in grave danger even though how we live our lives doesn't reflect that fact.
My first reaction and growing response that day was how could our billion dollar intelligence agencies not know this was going to happen. Where were our jets, our airport security, our supposedly highly sophisticated NSA (NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY!!!!)? My thoughts didn't go to revenge it went to disappointment that day.
Quickly I learned just how incapable they had been since the cold war ended. I fear that there has been little improvement to the agencies. The billions spent in Iraq could have been spent to enabled us to secure our ports, hire highly qualified, physiologically adept screeners at the airports, subways and train stations. With a two minute interview they can sense the legitimacy and veracity of the person their interviewing. A human going off to their death is not in a normal state of mind and this is easily seen by a normal person but a qualified person would catch it far quicker and would be trained to respond. Only a handful of airports are experimenting with this idea. The Israelis have thwarted hundred of suicide bombers over the years with this technique. Why is our security agencies so slow to change?
The USS New York is a beautiful ship but I'm afraid a very expensive newly made relic of a time long gone and was built to fight an enemy that no longer exists. Unfortunately, this ship is as inadequate to fight the terrorists as are our endangered but brave and loyal military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to spend more money to develop covert operations that infiltrate into their cells and organizations. How many Arab speaking CIA officers do we have? Not enough, you can be certain. Troops on the ground are easy targets for the guerilla warfare in the trouble spots in the world. Remember Black Hawk Down?
Never forget that the war between the Shias and the Sunnis has existed for a thousand years and we can't stop it now. Saddam held it back with the force of violence and tyranny but we can't use those tools. Iran is Shia and will take over the richest portion of Iraq very soon. It won't have to be an invasion because they're already there with power and great influence. Google the name Sistani and what you learn should prove that point.
Bush and all of the neocons in America always believed and continue to believe that if we had stuck it out and increased our military efforts and troops we would have won Vietnam with a military victory. This idea has been simmering in their brains since 1969. Let's not mention that most of them NEVER WENT TO VIETNAM!!!! In their minds it was the weakness of the American people (read, liberal Democrats) that caused our failure in Vietnam. Scary, I know but I heard Bush say as much a week or so ago and nobody picked it up. It re-triggered this idea that I've had. The present administration is set in it's mind, certain beyond any doubt that we can see a military victory in Iraq if we just ratchet up the violence and military presence we're gonna gettem' and walk away heroes, retaining control of the oil fields in the process. The poor Iraqi civilians who live in a horrible and violent civil war don't see it that way. Common sense would have told them that no man sees a foreign soldier in their land as anything but an occupying force that should be rejected and fought against. And fight they do and fight they will. Let's get out of there and let them kill each other.
Pace
I live in New York and was in the city on 9/11, it's also my youngest son's birthday. My oldest was going to college downtown that day and called me on his cell while watching the towers burn from the roof of his school. He soon ran towards the buildings photographing everything he saw as he ran. As the first tower tumbled into the growing and massive dust cloud he turned and ran uptown and eventually walked all the way to our apartment on east 57th street. We all had nightmares for many months afterwards. That morning we had guests visiting us from London. They are a young couple with a one year old baby girl. The trauma of that day will remain with us forever. It was truly a defining moment in the nation's history.
Since then I have been astonished at how the tragedy has been exploited and a clear perspective has been thwarted, lost by so many people and opinions and yet we who live in New York remain in grave danger even though how we live our lives doesn't reflect that fact.
My first reaction and growing response that day was how could our billion dollar intelligence agencies not know this was going to happen. Where were our jets, our airport security, our supposedly highly sophisticated NSA (NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY!!!!)? My thoughts didn't go to revenge it went to disappointment that day.
Quickly I learned just how incapable they had been since the cold war ended. I fear that there has been little improvement to the agencies. The billions spent in Iraq could have been spent to enabled us to secure our ports, hire highly qualified, physiologically adept screeners at the airports, subways and train stations. With a two minute interview they can sense the legitimacy and veracity of the person their interviewing. A human going off to their death is not in a normal state of mind and this is easily seen by a normal person but a qualified person would catch it far quicker and would be trained to respond. Only a handful of airports are experimenting with this idea. The Israelis have thwarted hundred of suicide bombers over the years with this technique. Why is our security agencies so slow to change?
The USS New York is a beautiful ship but I'm afraid a very expensive newly made relic of a time long gone and was built to fight an enemy that no longer exists. Unfortunately, this ship is as inadequate to fight the terrorists as are our endangered but brave and loyal military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to spend more money to develop covert operations that infiltrate into their cells and organizations. How many Arab speaking CIA officers do we have? Not enough, you can be certain. Troops on the ground are easy targets for the guerilla warfare in the trouble spots in the world. Remember Black Hawk Down?
Never forget that the war between the Shias and the Sunnis has existed for a thousand years and we can't stop it now. Saddam held it back with the force of violence and tyranny but we can't use those tools. Iran is Shia and will take over the richest portion of Iraq very soon. It won't have to be an invasion because they're already there with power and great influence. Google the name Sistani and what you learn should prove that point.
Bush and all of the neocons in America always believed and continue to believe that if we had stuck it out and increased our military efforts and troops we would have won Vietnam with a military victory. This idea has been simmering in their brains since 1969. Let's not mention that most of them NEVER WENT TO VIETNAM!!!! In their minds it was the weakness of the American people (read, liberal Democrats) that caused our failure in Vietnam. Scary, I know but I heard Bush say as much a week or so ago and nobody picked it up. It re-triggered this idea that I've had. The present administration is set in it's mind, certain beyond any doubt that we can see a military victory in Iraq if we just ratchet up the violence and military presence we're gonna gettem' and walk away heroes, retaining control of the oil fields in the process. The poor Iraqi civilians who live in a horrible and violent civil war don't see it that way. Common sense would have told them that no man sees a foreign soldier in their land as anything but an occupying force that should be rejected and fought against. And fight they do and fight they will. Let's get out of there and let them kill each other.
Pace
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