What you can do for your country

To Kill an American

Written by an Australian Dentist

You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that inAmerica they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion.. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous.. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan ..

The national symbol of America , The Statue ofLiberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towersthe morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world..

But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Is TSA really this clueless?

I was traveling the other day to a remote location in Michigan.  I live in a major city.  The principle airline is dramatically reducing traffic, so everyone has to go to the smaller concourse now to get a flight.  We were leaving at 6:00 am, which means we arrived for departure around 5:00 am on a Monday morning.  To my shock, there was a 50 min or so line going into security.  I have not seen one like that in a while.  As we finally got to security I also noticed two of the security/x-ray lines were not staffed.  I asked a TSA agent what was going on with such a long line.  The answer was "We are busy".  Hmmm.... "Busy", I guess the 50 min line should have been a clue.  So, I am thinking "They must know all these people are coming, because we have tickets.  The airline knows.  How come more TSA agents aren't on site to get us through quicker?"

On my return trip from Michigan, there was no line at the little airport.  As a matter of fact, I think there were three passengers and three TSA agents.  So, I ask the TSA agent "Do yo all know how many passengers are traveling".  She says "Yes".  I ask "How".  "Well, we record the number each day, around various times, and then estimate when people will travel".  "Do you get a list from the airline" I ask.  "No, but sometimes they tell us when they add or delete a flight" says she.

Some of you may have seen an article about using special antennas to monitor your progress in security lines based on the movement of your cell phone.  Blue-tooth emits a unique identifier that TSA can uses to find your position in line.  Civil libertarians are afraid its a violation of your privacy for TSA to track this data when you are in line.  So, TSA is trying to reconfigure the system so it does not store your phone identifier.

Now, lets put this all together.  TSA is supposed to track everyone who is flying so that we can prevent terrorists from getting on the plane.  Theoretically, TSA already knows your are in line at some point to get on that flight.  So what if they know your cell phone, they knew that already.  And you should probably already have your blue-tooth off, its sort of like screaming out your name in the hall and thinking no one will notice.  This is idiotic:

1. TSA shouldn't put the blue-tooth system in because the airline can tel them how many people are coming.  Screw the ACLU and just avoid the problem.
2. It the airline let TSA knows more people have reservations for a flight, they can/should add staff
3. More staff at busy times would probably also prevent omissions by security
4. TSA should probably also get a bonus based on keeping short lines, but then again they are government so efficiency is sort of a bad thing

Is this is how we plan to run health care?  We deserve to get our ass kicked by the Chinese if we are this clueless.

The President Does Not See 9/11 as an Act of War

Attorney General Holder has announced that he intends to bring the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in Federal Court in New York City.  AG Holder made this decision in part becasue he believes the 9/11 attacks were primarily against citizens, and therefore should be held in a federal court.

9/11 was an act of war by a non state actor, typically defined as terrorism.  The purpose of the attack was not to kill American citizens.  The attack was designed to weaken the United States ability to respond to the longer term efforts efforts by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to form a Caliphate in the Middle East.

Caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the world's first major welfare state.

Al-Qaeda and its affiliates are on a 50+ year journey, perhaps even longer if you follow Professor Bernard Lewis, to establish radical Islamic philosophy's into the world.  Their goal is to do this in the Middle East first, and then over decades (if not centuries) expand the reach of Islamic teachings and government through out the world.

Al-Qaeda believes that the West is weak.  They learned from Russia's invasion in Afghanistan, that a small force of warriors can take on a great army.  They believed that getting the United States to fight a battle in Afghanistan would result in a defeat of the Americans and power for Al-Qaeda.  Power that could be used for Osama bin Laden to drive the over throw of Saudi Arabia through Civil War.  Saudi Arabia is a teetering state.  The Royal family has been in power for too long.  Saudi Arabia is running out of oil.  My guess is that the secret Oil "Cheney meeting" in 2002 was really about Saudi's declining oil reserves, not some other collusion. Economic instability is a great basis for revolution.  Osama bin Laden sees Saudi as his target, not the United States.

Economic stability in the Middle East is a big concern.  The population in the Middle East is booming due significant reductions in infant mortality and elements of economic gain.  The problem however is there will be a lot of young adults in the 2018 time frame, without enough jobs.  So, if Saudi has less oil revenue and there are more young adults without jobs in 2018, the foundation of civil war in Saudi Arabia is set.

On 9/9/2001, Al-Qaeda killed the head of the Northern Alliance (Ahmad Shah Massoud ) in a decapitation maneuver.  Why would Al-Qaeda do this?  Because Al-Qaeda knew the United States would retaliate by invading Afghanistan.  A military strategy.  Killing Massoud would weaken a US counter attack.

Many have criticized the Bush Administration for not sending more troops and not being more aggressive in Afghanistan.  Beyond the fact that Afghanistan has never been effectively conquered (so why try), Al-Qaeda was positioning for a massive invasion of regular army troops from the US.  Instead, we attacked with Special Forces and other covert operations.  We attacked with these limited but highly effective forces to disrupt Al-Qaeda's strategy.

I personally believe that our invasion of Iraq was a counter maneuver to disrupt Al-Qaeda's further plan to cause revolution in Saudi Arabia, and Al-Qaeda's desire to begin the process of a Middle East revolution towards a Caliphate.  In the 2000-2002 time frame we moved military resources out of Saudi Arabia to Qatar.  Bringing down Iraq, eliminated Saddam Hussein as a resources for Al-Qaeda in a future step of the Caliphate strategy.  Near term it gives us a place to base forces to enter Saudi Arabia or any Gulf state that Al-Qaeda trys to drive to Civil war.  Iraq as a free state also opens up, over time, another mature oil economy in the Middle East that has an economic interest in stability.

Al-Qaeda, stalled in Afghanistan and blocked in Saudi Arabi due to Iraq, and the immense US force structure there, reset their strategy to weaken Pakistan and maybe get a Nuclear bomb.  It also gets them out of Afghanistan, which is a looser to begin with.

I am not sure what is going on with the current Afghanistan strategy.  It is unclear there is any reason to send troops there, other than its hard to let it fall into chaos.  It has little strategic benefit.  Obama was a fool to suggest it did.  Now he does not know how to unravel his position.

So, back to NYC.  The attack on 9/11 was a military strategy focused on weakening the United States.  Viewed over the arc of the last 8 years, it seems the strategy may be working.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the key strategist is in that military attack.  For Holder to say 9/11 was primarily an attack on Citizens so KSM should be tried in a federal court, is to ignore:

• A frontal attack on the essence of our democracy
• 1000s of troops that have died
• Those that died in the pentagon
• The planned attack on the white house/congress
• The meaning of the Al-Qaeda threat in the long term

I guess we can try to hold a trial in Federal court for KSM.  Personally I think its stupid, difficult to pull off, and threatens key elements of secrecy.  In the broader sense, I can only hope Holder is doing this for some stupid political reason.  If he, and the administration, are doing this becasue they see 9/11 as a violation of federal law they are missing the bigger (very much bigger) picture.  Al-Qaeda, KSM, and the rest mean to limit the notion of democracy around the world.  They are making a direct attack on freedom and the stability of the Middle East.  Al-Qaeda made a military strike.  They did not break the law.  Holder and the President are acting either out of ignorance or political motivation.  Lets hope they understand the bigger picture because our democracy depends on it.