thedrifter
09-16-04, 06:30 AM
09-14-2004
Additional Lessons from 9/11
By Ralf W. Zimmermann
While the United States military has done a decent job on the military battlefield against terrorism, the evil terrorists have also scored, showing us obvious weaknesses.
Osama and Company’s terror successes can’t be measured in personnel casualties inflicted but primarily in the psychological impact on America’s home front. Somehow, the terrorist thugs have succeeded in making all too many Americans buy into the necessity to jeopardize their children’s economic future by aimlessly throwing money at every conceivable security measure. Worst of all, Americans are willingly abdicating many intrinsic personal rights for elusive personal safety guarantees.
The politicians and the business people love it! Today, homeland security thrives on constantly changing threats. It is becoming one of our main industries.
Have we really learned much since 9/11?
Too many Americans have already forgotten the initial Anthrax panic of 2001. It almost caused a national meltdown despite the miniscule number of real Anthrax casualties. Following America’s news channels, you could have believed that thousands had perished in a modern plague epidemic.
In one of the famous Geraldo Rivera shows on Fox, Geraldo and some special guests even provide the terrorists with suggestions on how to better use chemical and biological warfare. Why not conduct Halloween attacks in Middle Eastern costumes to spread Anthrax like candy as a new terror trick? Good one!
Fear inspired, many Americans reacted. Halloween was suppressed and a new safety and security industry blossomed, selling anything from duct tape to useless respirators. One memorable report in The Denver Post even featured the entire family of a well-to-do Yuppie CEO in protective masks, bought from a military surplus store. The message: “I will do everything to survive … no matter what happens to the rest.” The Yuppies didn’t get it. The average protective mask can’t shield you from Anthrax. Fear sells well in 21st century USA.
Soon the fear reaction virus infected our government. It frantically created feel-good programs and bloated security bureaucracies – most headed by glib career politicians and beaucoup retired generals. No one talked of streamlining defense organizations to improve communications and reaction time to deal with terrorism.
By habit, we followed the bigger-is-better principle. To justify the new defense monsters, many of our senior bureaucrats now continuously jolt the public with contradictory information from different directions. Should it come as a surprise that much of the intelligence in defense of our homeland and for the war in Iraq is and was often absolute nonsense?
Looking at our military and other defense-related organizations, one has to wonder about the lopsided leader-to-led ratios. In most cases, there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
To adapt the existing defense bureaucracies to the requirements of the new war, we mainly needed to replace much of the outdated leadership with more agile, hands-on people, interested in serving the American public and not primarily themselves.
Instead of panic-driven reactions, the events of 9/11 and beyond should have triggered useful and immediate grass-roots reforms. The highest priority of reforming our government bureaucracy should have been to increase the size of citizen, hands-on warriors: firefighters, policemen, emergency workers and military troops – not more chiefs.
We also could have done better at uniting America by revitalizing the community spirit beyond superficial flag-waving. Americans should have demanded to have more input in overly restrictive emergency measures, such as the USA Patriot Act.
National calm, individual citizen commitment, sharing and self-discipline can set the right example for America’s children to unite America in a common cause, maintaining the edge over terrorism. No, there is no reason to fear terrorists invading the US of A’s streets, as some have us believe. Osama and Company can’t ever assemble an invasion force, capable of occupying our landmass and fight through 285 million Americans, many better armed than other countries’ militaries. That’s a fact, Jack!
By remaining calm and strong on the home front, America could send a clear message to the media and our politicians that we, the American people, demand more than feel-good responses in this war. That the so-called war on terror, when compared to past wars, is a really a limited conflict that we can and will survive, without mortgaging our children’s and elders’ economic futures.
Through new citizen spirit and political involvement, we can use these edgy times to de-polarize America. First, we must rediscover our fearless pioneer spirit. That could be the true victory in this terror conflict.
DefenseWatch Senior Military Correspondent Lt. Col. Ralf W. Zimmermann, USA (Ret.) is a decorated Desert Storm veteran and former tank battalion commander. His recent novel, “Brotherhood of Iron,” deals with the German soldier in World War II. It is directly available from www.iUniverse.com and through most major book dealers. Zimm can be reached at r6zimm@earthlink.net or via his website at www.home.earthlink.net/~r6zimm. © 2004 LandserUSA. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=632&rnd=970.0157058318224
Ellie
Additional Lessons from 9/11
By Ralf W. Zimmermann
While the United States military has done a decent job on the military battlefield against terrorism, the evil terrorists have also scored, showing us obvious weaknesses.
Osama and Company’s terror successes can’t be measured in personnel casualties inflicted but primarily in the psychological impact on America’s home front. Somehow, the terrorist thugs have succeeded in making all too many Americans buy into the necessity to jeopardize their children’s economic future by aimlessly throwing money at every conceivable security measure. Worst of all, Americans are willingly abdicating many intrinsic personal rights for elusive personal safety guarantees.
The politicians and the business people love it! Today, homeland security thrives on constantly changing threats. It is becoming one of our main industries.
Have we really learned much since 9/11?
Too many Americans have already forgotten the initial Anthrax panic of 2001. It almost caused a national meltdown despite the miniscule number of real Anthrax casualties. Following America’s news channels, you could have believed that thousands had perished in a modern plague epidemic.
In one of the famous Geraldo Rivera shows on Fox, Geraldo and some special guests even provide the terrorists with suggestions on how to better use chemical and biological warfare. Why not conduct Halloween attacks in Middle Eastern costumes to spread Anthrax like candy as a new terror trick? Good one!
Fear inspired, many Americans reacted. Halloween was suppressed and a new safety and security industry blossomed, selling anything from duct tape to useless respirators. One memorable report in The Denver Post even featured the entire family of a well-to-do Yuppie CEO in protective masks, bought from a military surplus store. The message: “I will do everything to survive … no matter what happens to the rest.” The Yuppies didn’t get it. The average protective mask can’t shield you from Anthrax. Fear sells well in 21st century USA.
Soon the fear reaction virus infected our government. It frantically created feel-good programs and bloated security bureaucracies – most headed by glib career politicians and beaucoup retired generals. No one talked of streamlining defense organizations to improve communications and reaction time to deal with terrorism.
By habit, we followed the bigger-is-better principle. To justify the new defense monsters, many of our senior bureaucrats now continuously jolt the public with contradictory information from different directions. Should it come as a surprise that much of the intelligence in defense of our homeland and for the war in Iraq is and was often absolute nonsense?
Looking at our military and other defense-related organizations, one has to wonder about the lopsided leader-to-led ratios. In most cases, there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
To adapt the existing defense bureaucracies to the requirements of the new war, we mainly needed to replace much of the outdated leadership with more agile, hands-on people, interested in serving the American public and not primarily themselves.
Instead of panic-driven reactions, the events of 9/11 and beyond should have triggered useful and immediate grass-roots reforms. The highest priority of reforming our government bureaucracy should have been to increase the size of citizen, hands-on warriors: firefighters, policemen, emergency workers and military troops – not more chiefs.
We also could have done better at uniting America by revitalizing the community spirit beyond superficial flag-waving. Americans should have demanded to have more input in overly restrictive emergency measures, such as the USA Patriot Act.
National calm, individual citizen commitment, sharing and self-discipline can set the right example for America’s children to unite America in a common cause, maintaining the edge over terrorism. No, there is no reason to fear terrorists invading the US of A’s streets, as some have us believe. Osama and Company can’t ever assemble an invasion force, capable of occupying our landmass and fight through 285 million Americans, many better armed than other countries’ militaries. That’s a fact, Jack!
By remaining calm and strong on the home front, America could send a clear message to the media and our politicians that we, the American people, demand more than feel-good responses in this war. That the so-called war on terror, when compared to past wars, is a really a limited conflict that we can and will survive, without mortgaging our children’s and elders’ economic futures.
Through new citizen spirit and political involvement, we can use these edgy times to de-polarize America. First, we must rediscover our fearless pioneer spirit. That could be the true victory in this terror conflict.
DefenseWatch Senior Military Correspondent Lt. Col. Ralf W. Zimmermann, USA (Ret.) is a decorated Desert Storm veteran and former tank battalion commander. His recent novel, “Brotherhood of Iron,” deals with the German soldier in World War II. It is directly available from www.iUniverse.com and through most major book dealers. Zimm can be reached at r6zimm@earthlink.net or via his website at www.home.earthlink.net/~r6zimm. © 2004 LandserUSA. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=632&rnd=970.0157058318224
Ellie