I think that in our current state of mind there is a lot of misunderstanding here.
=================================
"
You make reference to "beefing up our intelligence" (I think that's what I read).
The problem is that we need to PAY ATTENTION to what the world says. bin Laden (sp?) said 3 weeks ago that he was going to do something spectacular. Once again, or so it seems, we blew it off.
"
I still think we need to beef it up. During WWII, Patton's ficticious 1st Army Group in 1944 convinced the Germans that the Allis were ready to attack across the Pas de Callis. When the Cross channel attack happened, it was 100's of miles away in Normandy.
We need to take the PR like you said AND back it up with other facts so we are not mislead like the German general's staff and Hitler were during WWII. We do need take things seriously and pay attention to what the world is saying but I think that we need to look at ALL of what is out there and not just the surface noise.
=================================
"
As much as we all mourn today's events, I don't think knee jerk reactions and calls to increase military spending is going to stop terrorism.
"
I went back several level of posts to see where I'd missed the call for more spending. I could not find it. My point is that we need to refocus our some of our military for today's needs. In fact this dicussion of refocusing (not expanding) the military has been going on for months in Congress.
=================================
"
You have to get them before they get you.
"
AS I understand it, there is a story going around that I've had confermation from independant sources about Libia. (I heard it in about 1989).
If you recall, we went in in the 1980's and bombed Libia. Kadaffy had been making a lot of noise about how bad the US was. Do you recall how his retoric was toned down after the raid?
Everyone one knows the F15 strikes.
The story goes that the public strikes were a cover for a special ops team that was put ashore a few weeks ahead of the raid. They lived off the land. The night of/before (sources very) the raid, they were in Kadaffy's bedroom without the knowledge of his gaurds (a la' Mission Impossible) and told him to quiet down or they'd be back to finish the job. The night raid was the cover for their extraction.
=================================
I'm sorry that we seem to misunderstand each other when we also seem to have similar opinions
Doug
