conspiracy theories and related

[Biggsk@aol.com]

Geez,

WAY too many Oliver Stone types here!  Theories that this was done so that 
Bush could build up the military, etc.????????  What DID you smoke in the 
60's???

The recent attacks were planned and trained for over the last two years at 
least - if not longer!  Bush was not the president then (please note - I did 
not vote for Bush, I voted for Harry Browne as I am a Libertarian Party 
member - and I would have rather cut off my hand than vote for Gore!)  I 
would love to see if those that think this is some conspiracy of the 
Bush-military-industrial complex can logically tie these pieces and facts 
together!!!!!

Don't waste our time - you can't! 

One of the things you learn studying military history for over 30 years is 
that war comes in different shades and styles, somewhat tied into the 
political goals of the state or group that wages it ("War is an extension of 
politics by another means," Karl Von Clausewitz, 1822).

In the late 1600's and through the 1700's you had limited wars - wars of a 
nature to satisfy the immediate (and not the long term) goals of the state 
that waged them.  Consequently, this was also the period of European history 
that had the most wars in it (in terms of the "modern" military era at least) 
- as these limited wars never solved the problem long term!  Beat one nation 
and after a few years they came right back at you!

Compare this to the 1800's in Europe, in the aftermath of the first total war 
in world history - The Napoleonic Wars (in reality the first world war - even 
we were in it!)!  These were so costly in human lives and treasure, that the 
nations of Europe actually learned to live together fairly well (with a few 
exceptions, the Austrians and Prussians in 1866, the Franco-Prussian War of 
1870 and a few others) with longer periods of peace between wars than ever 
before - hence there were fewer wars in Europe at this time when compared to 
the two centuries prior.  This, of course, doesn't count the several colonial 
wars that European nations waged overseas in the 19th Century.

The 20th Century started with a world war, followed by a second world war - 
both, especially the latter, being total wars.  One set of problems was 
solved but sadly the latter one created another - Communism (as the first one 
created fascism - we should have let France fall in the first one - there 
would have been no Hitler had that happened, and probably no second war in 
Europe).  Only our political stupidity allowed that to continue despite the 
warnings of those with far better long term vision than FDR and his ilk had 
(Truman was not one of those ilk).  This was followed by the Cold War of 
course with its limited wars - Korea, Vietnam, etc. etc.  These were wars 
where there was not a design of victory but rather a design of containment.

This violates one of Clausewitz's primary dictums basically, who urged in 
1822 that if you go to war you do so with everything you have and finish the 
job, get your white flag from the other side, and then come home.  The sheer 
cost of World War 1 led to the Depression, and the sheer cost of World War 2 
bankrupted most of the world's nations - except ours (though we came close - 
we wisely sold war bonds and had the strongest economy than any other 
participant - see folks, capitalism isn't THAT bad!).  No nation today could 
afford to refight a war on the scale of World War 2 ever again - including 
ours (we no longer have the industrial base to fight it anyway).

The Persian Gulf War was a limited war.  Bush obeyed the UN Charter (see what 
happens when you listen to those idiots?) and evicted the Iraqis from Kuwait 
- then shut the war down after 100 hours.  There was no white flag from 
Baghdad, and American public opinion was revolted at the site of smashed 
Republican Guard vehicles trying to get away from Kuwait despite the fact 
that the actual body count was very low (when you see the first vehicle in 
the column go up, you usually run like Hell from the one you are in!).  The 
American people today cannot handle such things at all - we are far too soft!

Had I been Bush the First, I would have told the UN that if you want American 
military support, and without it all you can do to Iraq is wiggle your 
tongues basically, then we amend the UN charter to the ousting of Saddam 
Hussein!  That is what he should have done, and told the same thing to the 
Arabs that feared Iraq (and NONE of those nations could have stopped him!)  
See how fast they would have backpeddled.  We did not even need to invade 
Baghdad either - just smash the rest of the Republican Guard and the Kurds 
and other anti-Hussein groups would have handled the rest.  As it was, the RG 
got enough out of the war and then turned on their enemies crushing them!

Limited wars have never worked - they have always led to bigger and worse 
wars (for the most part).  What happened to us on Tuesday is the start of  
what should be, a concerted all-out war against that which not only threatens 
us and our future, but all the civilized nations of the world!  These 
terrorists hate all of us, they hate our success, they hate our ways of life! 
 They want us to live in tents in the desert like they do.  Not interested 
personally.

In history, the worst and bloodiest wars have been those fought over religion 
(the Thirty Years War in the 1600's was pretty nasty as were the Crusades); 
for nationalism (too many to mention here) or for independence (our own war 
had its very nasty moments between Tories and rebels, as was the entire Civil 
War, which was a war of independence basically).  One of the very few other 
wars that have matched these in terms of ferocity and horror was that fought 
between Germany and the Soviey Union in World War 2.  In that conflicting 
doctrines as well as racial hatred came into play.  The Germans captured 
nearly 4.5 million Soviet troops in that war - only about 1 million ever got 
home - and ALL of those were sent to the gulags by Stalin upon their return 
("what? You surrendered?  You should have died fighting the enemy!")  The 
Soviets took  20 million plus casualties in that war (then add on those that 
Stalin himself had killed before and during the war - which was even higher!  
Remember - FDR liked this guy!).

The war we now face is a religious war - at least that is how they wrap 
themselves.  Since they believe that, that's what it will be from their 
perspective.  We all know that this is not an element of the true Muslim 
religion - nor any religion.  It is a perversion of that - so don't blame 
religion for this.

Since they feel it is a honor and duty to die for Allah, they will, and by 
the busload!  In this respect they are like the Japanese of WW2 - who had 
their Bushido warrior code and their religion to give them honor and glory if 
they flew planes into American carriers or charged American machine guns!

We may be the strongest nation on Earth militarily - and despite the big 
cutbacks of the last eight years (as well as the degrading of our intel 
assets, particularly in "on the ground" agents - we rely far too much on 
technology), we still are.  But as we have seen that does not matter.  If 
these people lock onto a target they will get that target in due time - 
unless they get discovered first (like the guys yesterday in Delta Airlines 
uniforms).

This is a war that should have been waged long ago in a concerted effort with 
our Allies - who have had these problems for years.  No nation is secure from 
these people, who are well trained and financed, and even more motivated!

So what do we do?  We can attack their known bases which is fine, but they'll 
be back.  We can warn the supporting governments to turn them over to us and 
to stop aiding and funding them, which is fine, but we'll have to take on 
several nations at once - which is fine!  But they'll be back.

But that will not stop them over the long haul - and make no mistake about it 
people - this will go on for years!!!!!!  Will we, as a nation, have the WILL 
to carry it out that long?  Even with Pearl Harbor in 1941, the American 
people were extremely war weary by the summer of 1945 and wanted it to end.  
The U.S. government was broke - until the fall of Okinawa - which then 
allowed a new war bonds drive to raise a few billion more to carry it out to 
the end.  Northern Americans, in 1864, were also very war-weary, and the 
polls were starting to swing decisvely against Lincoln with each new 
newspaper report of Union Army casualties that summer.

Or will we head back to Monday Night Football, our 401K portfolios and the 
kid's soccer games and forget all about this?  We have never had the stomach 
for long, protracted wars (and Vietnam was NOT our longest war in our history 
- that honor goes to the Seminole Wars of the 1820's-1830's) and the people 
do not have the patience now, I fear.   I hope I am wrong but I am not 
holding my breath.

We will have to greatly tighten up the security of the airports.  Several 
GAO, as well as private groups, published reports over the last ten years 
about terribly lax security at our airports (Logan in Boston was consistently 
rated as one of the worst!).  We have all travelled and many of the people 
that work these "security" gates can barely say "do you want fries with 
that?", much less do their jobs catching bad guys!  Almost none of them would 
scare me off - many are horribly overweight and under-trained!  Even more 
don't take the security part seriously.  This is deterrence?  This is our 
government doing its most important job given to them  - protecting the 
American people from external threats?

All of these reports were greeted with yawns by the first Bush and the 
Clinton administrations - and the recent one was also greeted with a yawn.  
The media would have rather reported on Jenna Bush's drinking than the 
security report that was published at the same time.  Show's how good our 
media is as well as their agenda!  I would have thought that the two 
Massachusetts senators would have done something long ago, since Logan 
consistently showed up on the "bad" list - but then again one of them is an 
idiot who should have been jailed for manslaughter years ago!

We are not as mentally strong as the Americans were of the 1940's.  They came 
out of the Depression, while we today cannot even relate to that.  That is a 
fundamental reason why we were attacked - THEY feel we cannot handle it and 
will not do much to fight back (after eight years of Clinton talking tough 
and doing little else but lobbing cruise missles here and there, I can see 
their side completely from that perspective.  Clinton is a moral coward!  And 
he did nothing after the USS Cole was attacked other than posture.  The Navy 
cutbacks cut off the fueling at sea, which would have prevented the Cole from 
even having to go into Yemen to refuel!).  Are they right?

We stand together now as we did in Desert Storm.  I fear though, that had we 
fought an army that was far better than it actually was, and the body bags 
started piling up, that that support would have quickly flagged off with 
demands for an end ringing loudly.  There will be body bags in this new war - 
and lots of them over the years.  More buildings will be attacked, more 
planes taken over, more Americans killed with more destruction of our nation. 
 Only the FAA shutdown of air traffic prevented other buildings from being 
taken out.  There are still terrorists out there in our country from this 
current group, just biding their time.

Tuesday was a declaration of war against us - and all Congress can do is pass 
resolutions comdemning the act.  The Congress of 1941 knew what to do as did 
the Congress of 1917 and 1802 (the ones that declared war on the Barbary 
Pirates, of the region that now encompasses Algeria and Libya - they were the 
terrorists of their day) - yet ours today is still talking!  Most of Congress 
are also moral cowards, far more concerned with taking bribe (campaign) money 
and keeping their jobs than doing the right thing.

We'll eventually declare war, and the nation will mobilze for it - but how 
long will the support last from the people?

Do we have the stomach for this long and bloody war?

Greg Biggs/CVC Collectables