The media and bureaucrats are at least beginning to discuss the possibility of al Q’aeda involvement. After you’ve read the article come back and I’ll finish….
Okay. What is blatantly obvious in the comments? Do you see the same pre-September 11th thought patterns I see?
We are no longer dealing with terrorism that fits into the familiar tick box on government forms. We are not looking at terrorism intended to make a statement or to get prisoners released. We are not looking at terrorism as an isolated event with an isolated purpose.
We are looking at the face of 21st Century warfare.
The enemy is out to destroy our society by any means possible. They don’t need to give manifestos to the media about their purpose because the attacks are a warfighting tactic, not a statement.
If any of our readers happen to be in the right circles, please tell these officials to get their heads out of the box and start thinking WAR, not comfortable 1980’s statement oriented violence happenings.
Let’s stop talking about Motive. That’s police work. Start talking Strategy, Tactics and Objectives and how the Beltway events fit into the big picture of this World War.
I might be entirely wrong about the unfolding of this event…. but even if it is homegrown psychos this time… it won’t be the next.
Dale:
I have another concern about this article. It’s Tom Ridge’s comment that “The community is terrorized.”
Look at how he said that simple sentence. If the murderer intended to terrorize, it worked! The community IS terrorized. Ridge could have said that sentence in so many other ways, such as “It appears that the sniper is intending to terrorize the community,” or “The sniper is seeking to instill terror in us, but we won’t let that happen.” Instead, the homeland insecurity is wringing his hands and is basically whining, “Oh my goodness, what are we ever going to do?”
I frankly don’t know what makes me more angry: the fact that we have a murderous coward stalking the area where my brother lives, or the fact that our “leaders” are coming across as incompetent whimps.
Whatever happened to the bravado behind President Bush encouraging folks to go to DisneyWorld? (Which I did. All for my country’s honor, of course.) Of course this is a frightening time. However, I’m simply afraid that Bush’s Churchill impression is going to be slowly taken over by Ridge’s and the FBI’s Vaudeville act.
Disgusting.
The airheads keep chanting from their “How to tell if it is terrorism” rule book: if this is terrorism, then there would be a group claiming responsibility…
How long was it before al Q’aeda claimed responsibility for 9-11?
Brian:
If I recall, the only reason we heard about AQ’s involvement on 9/11 was because American special forces found those video tapes of OBL talking about 9/11. I don’t think they EVER claimed responsibility. That’s part of their strategy: to hit hard and then have people wonder who on earth could have done such a horrible act. The intent is to increase psychological pressure on the populace. So long as no one claims responsibility, AQ can hide behind the veil of insufficient evidence. They surmise, how can we be attacked if the FBI/ATF/etc. doesn’t know who did it? Before last weekend, it worked, among other places, in Indonesia…
I believe the chance of this being Al Queada is slim, or “Islamic Inspired” (as with the LA airport) as just slightly higher than slim.
That being said, Brian and Russ are corect on Al Quead not makiing claims.
It reminds me of the people running around after saying 9/11 would not help the cause of moslem militants because would be less sympathic. news Flash: We are not the target audience, the half the moslem wolrd under 20 isa the audience, the rulers of moslem states are the audience.
This is the most common scheme. Lockerbie, no claim, only denials; 9/11 no claim only denials; bali, no claim, but a repeat ..shamelessly echoed in the indonesian press..that only the CIA or Mossad could have done it.
If Al Queda is behind this, and I tend to beleive it is homegrown, they are never going to openly admit it. What for?
Nine out of eleven dead? – 9-11.
Tarot sounds like “terror.”
You know, we Americans could stop all of this if we wanted to. Our national will power is weak, but in a year or so it will wake up. Why are we so afraid of video cameras on street corners? Invasion of privacy? Well, the streets are not private, excuse me. And with video cameras, these thugs or terrorists (or whatever you wanna call them) would be caught very quickly. When will we wake up and start using our technology to fight evil?