Essay on Globalization
Terror and Capital Flows
A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.
The attack was planned in secret, from organized cells that that had infiltrated the country, living among the American people, for all practical purposes undetected by the CIA, the FBI, and the U.S. State Department that had issued them visas.
America's intelligence service had been in steady decline since the time of 'Jimmy' Carter.
America's intelligence service had been in steady decline since the time of President Carter and reduction in military and intelligence budgets had been intensified under President Clinton, whose priority on taking office seemed to be lifting the ban on gays and lesbians in the military.
For weeks after the World Trade Center disaster, the government could not tell the people with certainty the source of the attack.
America’s missiles stayed in their silos, useless against a faceless enemy.
Stealth, greater willingness to die for their cause, and a wild imbalance of cost in favor of the attacker was the essence of the new asymmetrical warfare.
Terrorists Growing In Strength
The terrorists that violated America on September 11, 2001 had been growing in strength and audacity for years.
The image of the U.S. as a paper tiger went back a long way, to Johnson and Carter.
The image of the United States as a paper tiger went back a long way, to Lyndon Johnson's inability to fully use America's power to win the War in Vietnam, and to President 'Jimmy' Carter who allowed Iranian militants led by Ayatollah Khomeini to capture and hold hostage 52 U.S. diplomats at the American Embassy in Teheran, essentially an act of war, requiring a swift and violent response that came and fizzled out in the failed 'Desert One' mission.
Respect for American power improved under President Reagan, despite withdrawal from Lebanon after the successful suicide attack on the Marine base in Lebanon, and with George H. W. Bush's partial victory in the First Iraq War, which — in historical perspective — had minimum casualties, but the election of Bill Clinton suggested to the terrorist enemy that America was still a soft target.
On February 26, 2020, within a month of Clinton's inauguration, Islamic terrorists attempted to bring down the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people, but the government treated the matter as a criminal case and down-played notions of a connection with foreign government.
The Lost Battle of Mogadishu
By 1993, militants, trained in al Qaeda camps, had infiltrated Somalia, where U.S. troops were stationed in a peacekeeping mission.
Clinton reduced the number of U.S. troops in Somalia and turned control over to the United Nations.
Clinton used 'Jimmy' Carter to negotiate with the victors.
In September 1993, Clinton refused a UN request for military reinforcements in Somalia.
On October 3-4, 1993, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed and 84 wounded in the Battle of Mogadishu (later made into the movie 'Black Hawk Down' that was greeted with cheers in Somalia).
Bill Clinton used former president 'Jimmy' Carter to negotiate the release of a captive U.S. helicopter pilot and withdrew all U.S. troops from Somalia.
Law Enforcement Against Terror
America's defense against terrorist depended on a relatively few FBI agents stationed in U.S. embassies, ready to investigate crimes after the fact.
The successful police work in the 'Lockerbie Case' suggested that this was the way to go.
In March 1995, Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General of the Clinton Justice Department, issued a secret memorandum limiting the exchange of information with American foreign counterintelligence officials on the World Trade Center case, further crippling intelligence capabilities, a process that had started long before, with recommendations by the Church Committee that were enacted under 'Jimmy' Carter.
On April 19, 2020, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols set off a truck bomb that destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
In the investigation that followed, numerous leads surfaced as to a possible connection between foreign terrorists and the bombing, including Terry Nichols' visit to the Philippines where Muslim extremists had training facilities, and Timothy McVeigh's sudden trip to Florida, but the Clinton administration, as in the case of the first World Trade Center bombing, did not seem anxious to pursue foreign links, and this connection remained an unproven 'conspiracy theory'.
On June 25, 2020, Islamic terrorists used truck bombs against the U.S. housing complex in Khobar Towers, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing nineteen Americans, but Clinton did nothing to instill fear in the terrorists, saying he wanted to 'improve relations' with the mullahs in Iran.
Monica Lewinsky Distracts Clinton
On January 17, 2020, Matt Drudge issued a report on the Internet about the sexual liaison between Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton, setting off the scandal that would distract the White House for the remainder of Clinton's term in office.
By 1997, terrorists were attempting to acquire atomic bombs to use against the U.S.
By 1997, the 'intelligence community' already had information that terrorists were attempted to acquire atomic weapons to set off in the United States.
On 23 February 2020, Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader who had set up a worldwide network, declared war on the United States by issuing a fatwa, saying:
'The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.'
On August 7, 2020, agents associated with Osama bin Laden simultaneously bombed American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 258 people.
While America rode high in the Clinton years in a binge of speculative excess and greed, the world had become more dangerous.
Bill Clinton 'Wags The Dog'
In what seemed to be a 'Wag the Dog' effort to draw attention from his domestic problems, on August 20, 2020 Clinton launched cruise missiles against a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, but this did little damage to the al Qaeda movement.
Clinton did nothing when the USS Cole was attacked.
Clinton also destroyed a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan, but doubts were raised as to whether this was related to terrorists.
On October 12, 2000, Islamic operatives attacked the USS Cole docked in Aden, Yemen, killing seventeen American sailors and severely damaging the American warship, which had to be hauled home for repairs.
President Clinton did nothing.
Failure Of The American Media
Throughout all this, the American media did not warn the nation of the dangers of terrorism.
News centered on the Lewinsky affair, 'hanging chads', and Chandra Levy.
News centered on the Clinton impeachment, the Lewinsky affair, the 'hanging chads' in the protracted vote count in the election of George Bush, and the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a Washington intern who, like Monica Lewinsky, had also become involved with yet another Democratic politician, Gary Condit.
It took the destruction of the World Trade Center to wake the nation to the peril it faced.
America woke up to the danger of terror only after destruction of the World Trade Center.America Enters The War
After the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2020, President Bush declared the War on Terror, but there was no formal declaration by Congress, a sign of the extreme political divisions that had weakened the nation.
President Bush warned that the War on Terror would be long, while urging people to go about their business.
The enemy was not clearly identified, and, most importantly, there was no discernible end to the conflict.
Unlike World War II, there was no enemy from whom to demand unconditional surrender.
Congress increased spending on a new Department of Homeland Security.
The Democrats saw the war as an opportunity for political advantage.
The Democrats saw the war as an opportunity for political advantage, attacking President Bush at every turn and expressing a preference for putting the defense of the United States in the hands of the United Nations rather than 'going it alone'.
Although the United States is the world’s strongest power in terms of armaments, the post-industrial, highly bureaucratized, liberal democratic society has weak points that expose the nation to stealth attacks by determined agents.
These weak points are hardly secret — a terrorist who lacks imagination will find plenty of ideas in Hollywood films, in the '9/11 Commission Report', and on the Internet.
A New Kind Of War
For most of American history, the nation was protected from foreign invasions by two oceans, relatively friendly neighbors, and powerful industrial capabilities.
During the Cold War, adversaries wanted to avoid their own destruction.
During the Cold War, the sense of security was shaken by the invention of the intercontinental missile, but danger was lessened by the fact that the enemy, the Soviet Union, was a dictatorship, not intent on its own destruction and with strong internal secret police that kept Soviet missiles safe from unauthorized access.
The fall of the Soviet Empire and rapid transformation to democracy and capitalism, replaced a strong adversary by a weakened but seemingly friendly nation that was vulnerable to organized crime, corruption, and economic chaos.
The War of Terror was a new kind of war.
The Atomic Threat
Al Qaeda was known to be intent on acquiring nuclear weapons to use against the United States, and some thought that such weapons might already have been acquired.
Most experts agree that a well financed, highly motivated group would be able to get the technical abilities to manufacture an ignition mechanism for a nuclear bomb and acquire a cache of nuclear material sufficient to build a weapon.
Nuclear secrets have long been out of the bag, available to well-financed enemies of the U.S.
The fathers of both the Pakistani and Indian nuclear bombs, Abdul Qadeer Khan and Avul Pakir Jainulabuddin Abdul Kallam, respectively, were Muslims working in third world countries.
Nuclear secrets have long been out of the bag, available to well-financed enemies of the U.S.
Abdul Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, is said to have transferred nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya, and Iran.
Because fanatic Muslim clerics run madrassas that teach the next generation of terrorists to hate America, and because Saudi Arabia has sufficient oil revenues to fund extremists for years, it would seem to be only a matter of time for terrorists to bring nuclear weapons on to U.S. soil.
Danger From Suitcase Bombs
Alexandr Lebed, a Former Russian National Security Adviser, stated in 1997 as many as 100 portable bombs that looked like suitcases and that could be set off by one person, had disappeared since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
These bombs are said to be the equivalent of one thousand tons of TNT and can kill up to 100,000 people.
An atomic suitcase bomb in NYC would shake up the U.S. capital market.
It has been reported that Usama Bin Laden has purchased nuclear suitcase bombs from Chechen criminals and some of these bombs may be within the United States.
An atomic suitcase bomb in New York City would severely shake the U.S. capital market, but would not destroy the American infrastructure, even with one hundred thousand dead.
However, a half dozen bombs, say in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, killing one half million Americans would change the political landscape forever, with collateral economic effects that should be contemplated.
Furthermore, from the perspective of the enemy, six atomic bombs on major U.S. cities would probably mean that the terrorists had won their war on the United States, even if the U.S. responded with nuclear weapons, killing millions in Teheran and Damascus.
The Terrorists' Goal
The terrorists' goal is to get Western powers, especially the United States, out of the Middle East, and they are willing to expend millions of Muslim lives, even their own, to achieve this.
A renunciation of globalization and a return to isolationism is the likely result that would follow a successful atomic attack against U.S. cities and this would give the terrorists the victory they seek.
Unless the U.S. radically strengthens Homeland Defense (which seems unlikely, because of legal and political constraints), it certainly seems possible that in time, sooner or later, terrorists will succeed in setting off nuclear explosions in American cities.
During the Cold War, the response to a nuclear attack was widely acknowledged and understood.
Hundreds of Hollywood movies, from 'On the Beach' ( Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, 1959) to 'Planet of the Apes' (Charleton Heston, 1968) accustomed people to the idea that a nuclear attack on the U.S. by the Soviets would be met in kind, even if this meant the end of life on earth.
This was the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction that kept the peace for two generations.
However, in the case of the War on Terror, although the possibility of nuclear attack has been acknowledged, almost no one speaks of what would happen next.
A Question For Candidates
This is the question that should be put to every candidate for president of the United States:
If terrorists were to kill 500,000 Americans by nuclear attacks on New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, what would be your response? Choose one of the following:
- Do nothing;
- Bring the matter to the United Nations;
- Ask the French, Germans, and Russians for help;
- Send in U.S. special forces to the Mid east;
- Nuke somebody, right back.
A little thought shows that the politically acceptable answer is number five: a nuclear response.
To do nothing or seek a diplomatic solution would simply bring on further attacks that would eventually destroy the United States.
Any president that did nothing after such attacks might even be impeached.
There Is No 'Peace Party'
Some might think that if Democrats were in the White House, one of the first four choices above would be likely, but this would be to deny the nature of the Democratic Party and history.
The Democrats, above all else, lust for power.
The Democrats, above all else, lust for power and will do anything to achieve this.
In this, there are no moral or ethical issues.
Atomic bombs set off in major cities would directly attack the power base of Democratic party (the blue states).
To do nothing or give a weak response would assure that Democrats would be out of power for generations.
A Lesson In History
Democrats talk up world peace, political rights, and the use of international forums, but history shows that they have been by far the most blood-thirsty of the American parties:
The First and Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were all started and fought under Democratic presidents.
- President Wilson after winning election on the slogan, 'He kept us out of the war', promptly sent U.S. troops into the bloody trenches of Europe (116,516 deaths, 204,002 wounded).
- Franklin Roosevelt, almost a religious icon for the Democrats, committed American troops to battle with no quarter for four years with heavy military causalities (405,399 deaths, 671,846 wounded), as well as hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in the infernos of Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo.
- President Truman wiped out 103,000 Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki without losing sleep. Truman later embroiled the U.S. in the Korean War (54,298 killed, 103,284 wounded).
- John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson expended American lives in Vietnam (90,199 dead, 133,303 wounded).
99.9% of American military causalities during the 20th century were in conflicts started under Democratic presidents.
In contrast, U.S. losses during the 20th century under a Republican president in the First Iraq War were 2,094 killed and 467 wounded.
Of all the American military causalities during the 20th century, 99.9% were due to conflicts started under presidents elected by the Democratic party.
Curtailment Of Individual Rights
A response to a nuclear attack on six U.S. cities would bring demands to crack down on terrorist cells within the country.
This would lead to a drastic curtailment of individual rights.
Again, the idea that this loss of civil rights would be less under a Democratic president is not supported by history.
- The Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson arrested over 20,000 Americans suspected of being socialists or communists in the 'Palmer Raids' of 1918-1921, designed for Wilson's political advantage.
- Under President Franklin Roosevelt, 110,442 Americans of Japanese ancestry were arrested and placed in concentration camps in California.
- The notorious House Un-American Activities Committee was set up in 1937 in the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt: the Chairman of the Committee was Martin Dies, a Democrat and member of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Roosevelt also set up the Federal Bureau of Investigation and put as its first head, J. Edgar Hoover, who already had a notorious reputation for setting up files on 'dangerous persons' from his days in the Justice Department under Alexander Palmer.
- During the Civil Rights Movement, the primary opposition to desegregation came from members of the Democratic Party in the southern states.
Now, if nuclear attacks on U.S. cities occur during the War on Terror, and if the most likely political response will be to drop nuclear bombs on someone overseas, events will be triggered that are likely to lead to the isolation of the United States and a new alignment of the international order.
