Posted by
Dean Cooper on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 2:23:34 PM
I was asked if I thought the thwarted terrorist attacks on airplanes may have been planned for Aug 22nd. This is my response:
I
think I saw something about a possible trial run was meant to be done on Aug
16th, but who can say for sure about any of this? It was this uncertainty, after
all, which led the authorities to arrest them now rather than wait any longer.
Even if the terrorists had already purchased plane tickets for Aug 21/22, that
doesn't mean that the attack would have happened then. Not only was it possible
for the terrorists to change their plans at any moment, but the trial run could
have become the real run, or equally possible, it could have led them to rethink
their plans and delay their attack.
Moreover, the Aug 22nd date is a Shiite/Hezbollah/Iranian thing, not a
Sunni/al Qaeda/Pakistani thing.
No,
the more troubling thing here is the general feeling that things are getting
worse. Terrorist cells are springing up everywhere -- with radicals anxious to
strike us the next cruel blow. Terrorist militias are getting bolder -- with no
sense that they will ever negotiate, compromise or back down. Terrorist
insurgents are getting bloodier -- with the knowledge that their barbarism is
creating uncontainable chaos that is forcing us to
withdrawal.
And
now terrorists nations are readying to join the world war seeking to project
their power and influence like never before.
And we
-- Israel, the U.S., Europe -- just want it all to go away. This barbaric
radicalism defies sense and reason. We just want to go back to our normal lives
and hope we can negotiate some compromise that will work things out -- if only
for a while -- until reason and sanity can be restored.
But
our enemy is serious. Our enemy is not looking for their grievances to be
addressed. They never will. Our enemy is looking to slit our
throats.
The
world is changing before our eyes. We are powerless to stop it because the more
we do to fight it, the more we stir it up and the more it is able to use what we
do against us. The less we do to fight it, the more it advances, the more
powerful it becomes and the closer it comes to destroying
us.
It is
winning because it doesn't care when it loses. It is winning because we care
about humanity, decency and all things good. It is winning because it would
rather die than become us.
But
make no mistake about who is the greatest threat to us. As bad as all these
terrorist cells are. As bad as all these various terrorist militias are. As bad
as all the terrorist insurgents are. None of them is nearly as threatening to us
as Iran is.
Iran
is the real deal. They are powerful and professional at many levels. When they
launch their terror cells, they will do substantial damage. They aren't like al
Qaeda that depends on relatively untrained fanatics to carry out an
occasional impressive attack. They have professional special forces that know
how to carry out strategic attacks. They have technology that they are quite
willing to give to terrorist militias. They have powerful weapons that they give
to the insurgents. They are able to project their power and influence outside
their own region more significantly than any other terrorist or rogue nation at
this time.
And
when they get their nuclear bomb, they will feel they are
unstoppable.
If
Iran intends (or intended) to do anything on Aug 21/22, even if only indirectly
through others, I would see it as their way to further establish their
ascendancy and the significance of their Shiite view of the world -- even if
only in their own mind's eye.
I'm
afraid the writing is on the wall. We can only stomach so much fighting. We are
only willing to go so far, while our enemy is quite willing to take what we've
given them and keep upping the ante.
This
is not our government that lacks the resolve. It is us. Both here and in Israel.
Real war is something nobody in Western style democracies wants. Costly wars
even less so.
This
is what dooms us in the face of an enemy that is not reticent for war, death or
destruction.