It's the terrorism stupid, or the Bush strikes back...(screed alert)

The NYT has it's knickers in knots about the gov't spying on possible terrorists...it's just a coincidence that this information was released to big headlines at the same time the reporter's book is being published...

Ah, but Instapundit points out what every Art Bell listener knows: Echelon has been around since Clinton years...and even been profiled on sixty minutes, so presumaby even Dan Rather knows about it...

And then Giuliani gets a NYT editorial
explaining how FBI agents were prevented from stopping 9-11...

And then the NYPost prints THIS editorial, just in case you can't put 2 and 2 together...

December 18, 2005 -- Federal officials are investigating the deaths and horrific injuries that would result if a nuclear truck bomb were set off by terrorists in Manhattan, The Post has learned.

A national medical expert has told them the aftermath of such an attack would be a blood-curdling picture out of Dante's "Inferno" — and the city is ill-prepared to relieve the horror.

Of course, this is nothing new...the CDC site has information on bioterrorism HERE...

you can watch their film here... like most ER articles, however, it's about dirty bombs or similar low grade nuclear terrorism...which are the most likely terrorist scenerio...

However, with both Pakistan having the bomb, and Iran getting it, and with a couple thousand bombs lying around Russia and ex USSR countries, what if the real thing occurred? Try HERE and HERE...the second link is to a Defense Dept handbook on Project Gutenburg....it was first published in 1968...

Undoubtably fanning fears of being nuked is merely propaganda to support Bush's war...except that these are very real dangers...OK. We have a complicated stew of theats that are feeding off each other, a stew of religious utopian fanaticism, resentments, and WMD...what do you do? (attention Hillary..)

I'm all for singing Kumbaya and being a pacifist, but as my experience in two African wars showed me, there are very bad people out there...and, as one Marine explains it: "There are sheep (the meek, normal people) and there are wolves (the predators, and the fanatics), and then there are sheepdogs...and I'm a sheepdog..."

Yes, Jesus assured us that the meek would inherit the earth, and to turn the other cheek...but he also noted a good shepherd "gives his life for his sheep", implying that if you are in charge of protecing sheep, it means you must fight the wolves, not just sit back and sing kumbaya to them...

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However, unless someone decides to nuke Cabanatuan, I guess we are far enough from Manila not to worry about it...we only have to worry about bird flu, dengue, typhoid, diarrhea, volcanos, typhoons, and the local NPA...

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Update:
Acid tongued Spengler thinks Bush's idea that democracy will prevent genocide ignores history...LINK