A 9-11 Report Card

Following the horror of 9-11, government moved in to instill order and begin its mission for justice. What has it accomplished?

Has it made airline travel safer? Has it caught the organizers of the attack? Has it taken measures that will lessen the likelihood of a similar strike? Has it managed its activities within the domain of the Constitution, the document politicians pledge to uphold?

You know the answers. No, no, no, and hell, no. The Constitution, government reminds us, is not a suicide pact.

Government has always hated the Constitution, especially the first Ten Amendments. Politicians like to wield power — forget that "We the People" stuff. That's why the Bill of Rights is a set of amendments instead of the foundation of the original document — the federalist framers didn't want it.

The Constitution ceased long ago to be an obstacle to political ambition — supporters of the Constitution now are eligible for terrorist classification. In spite of nonstop constitutional infractions by elected officials, we are told that whatever they do represents the American way and is good for Americans, no matter how ruinous the consequences. The Constitution is indeed not a suicide pact; we get that from the demagogues who ignore it.

If a crisis presents an opportunity, an endless crisis presents endless opportunities. With bin Laden off the radar, the administration is setting sights on Hussein. Is he now the linchpin of world terror or just the one we might get away with killing? Have we reviewed all tyrants and found him the most imminently threatening?

Last October, while President Bush was exchanging handshakes and smiles with China's President Jiang Zemin, who claims to loath terrorism in all its flavors, Beijing TV was promoting a video it made that celebrates the WTC attacks. "This is the America the whole world has wanted to see," the video's narrator alleges. "Blood debts have been repaid in blood." [1]

China is not part of the administration's famous axis, yet they are reportedly within a year of having the Dong Feng 31 ICBM operational. DF-31 missiles can deliver a 3-megaton H-bomb to your doorstep. The Chinese navy will soon be able to launch Julang 2 missiles from some of its submarines. JL-2 missiles can hit just as hard as DF-31s and can be launched undersea. [2]

A recent congressional brief states that China is still active in proliferating Weapons of Mass Destruction to regimes openly hostile to the United States. The brief notes that, in spite of frequent promises to behave, China "remains a 'key supplier' of technology inconsistent with nonproliferation goals — particularly missile or chemical technology transfers" to countries like Pakistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, and Iran. [3]

Is Saddam really more dangerous than China?

Russian President Putin plays the smile-and-handshake game too. Russia has lucrative "cooperation plans" with Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, and has sold China new navy vessels that it may arm with Russian Yahont cruise missiles. Yahonts can hit targets 162 nautical miles away, while traveling just under Mach 3 speed at tree-top heights. [4]

Like China, Russia has a history steeped in treachery. In 1972, 102 nations, including the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, signed a treaty renouncing germ warfare. Almost immediately, the Soviets secretly stepped up development of its bio-weapons program. According to Ken Alibek, a former top scientist in the Soviet program who defected to the U.S., the Soviets had four large facilities dedicated exclusively to anthrax production. In the late 80s, the Soviets began destroying their stockpiles of biological weapons and closing the facilities, fearing detection by the U.S. Alibek believes many scientists, who found themselves without a job, defected to terrorist states. Russia denies any anthrax left the country, but the knowledge of how to weaponize it certainly did. With knowledgeable sources, creating war-grade anthrax is not difficult, Alibek claims. [5]

Biologist Gary Novak disagrees. To weaponize anthrax, he says, "it has to be converted to spores suspended in the air, which is technically very difficult; and the lethality is nowhere near the terror that it is made out to be. . . . Only the US and Russian militaries have succeeded in [weaponizing anthrax]. Even Iraq uses anthrax in liquid form, which is totally ineffective." Novak believes the anthrax scare is part of a government disinformation campaign to strengthen public support for the war on terrorism. [6]

When President Bush accused Iraq of supporting terrorists in his State of the Union address last January, he could have repeated himself for any number of countries, including the U.S. As taxpayer-funded government ads have stressed, drugs finance terrorism, though not because of drug users, as the ads state, but because of government-enforced prohibition that makes illegal drug trafficking highly profitable.

Even if we declare war on Saddam and manage to remove him, what then? Could we breathe easier knowing he's gone, while the country that farmed out most of the 9-11 hijackers is on our official list of allies? Or knowing that western-hating Kurds could step in and replace him? Or that friends like China and Russia are continuing to spread technology to our enemies? Or that American lives were sacrificed to start a much wider conflict? The world is full of dangerous tyrants. Is war the smart way to get rid of them?

The war hawks are saying we no longer have a choice — we need to hit Saddam before he hits us. Yet Congressman Ron Paul reminds us that former generals Anthony Zinni, Brent Scowcroft, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Colin Powell caution against war with Iraq. [7]

In the early years of our country, Americans enjoyed relative peace and international respect because government was small, as the Constitution directs. Beginning in 1860 aggressive nationalism took over, and this is where it's brought us.

Government seems to deserve a failing grade for its 9-11 response, until we look more closely at what it's doing to us. If it's true we were attacked for our prosperity and freedom, then government's strengthening our security every day it's on the job.

References

1. China�s Video Games, Rip Rense, Nov. 7, 2001, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25239

2. China/Russia Deploy New Missiles, Charles R. Smith, Nov. 7, 2001, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/8/13331.shtml

3. China's Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Current Policy Issues, Issue Brief for Congress, Shirley A. Kan, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, July 25, 2002.

4. What's happened to superpower stockpiles of deadly germs? Len Cannon, http://www.msnbc.com/news/645075.asp?cp1=1

5. China/Russia Deploy New Missiles, Ibid.

6. Anthrax as disinformation, Gary Novak, http://nov55.com/athr.html

7. Important Questions About War in Iraq, Ron Paul, Texas Straight Talk, Sep. 3, 2002, http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2002/tst090302.htm

A certified Toastmaster, George F. Smith is a freelance writer who welcomes the opportunity to address your group or organization. Send him email at gfs543@bellsouth.net.