More Senseless gun Violence

So this last attack was in Virginia beach.

Twelve dead for no reason except one man's anger and easy availability of guns.

Watching the survivors describe the incident, you can tell it was life changing for them, coming so close to death and knowing the victims.

Imagine it changes their whole opinion on the issue.

They saw incidents on the news but they didn't think it could happen to them.

Maybe its a mistake for the news to not show the truly horrendous violence to avoid offending viewers.  Better to be offended than dead.

If these shooting were being done by a terrorist group we would have an all out campaign to stop them.

Maybe we need to realize the terror is real even if the people doing it aren't joined in some plot.

They simply all own guns.

What's the Plan?

So we hit Syria with some missiles, doing damage to the places where they manufacture chemical weapons, and think that resolves it?

It really didn't accomplish much considering the fact that the Syrian Government has pretty much quashed most resistance and the need to use chemical weapons is probably not an urgent thing right now.

They also most likely have some in inventory.

The last time we had a president declare mission accomplished it led to a conflict that we are still engaged in.

This response isn't a solution, although its hard to have a solution without a plan.

What are we trying to accomplish in Syria, the middle east or the world in general?

Apparently if someone use chemical weapons on their own people we will react.

Everything else is OK?

The stated plan is America first, whatever that means.

Its also not a plan that is going to be appealing to our allies per se.

Despite statement by the dontard, it was always America first, although what that means is part of the problem.

We need to protect our citizens by reducing terrorism but what is the best strategy to do that?

We can try to guard everything but we know that's not really possible.

This is the anniversary of the Boston terrorist attack and that put pressure cookers in the cross hairs, although I'm sure there are other common items that can be turned into weapons.

Of course we have had the mass shootings, which weren't generally terrorist acts, but certainly could have been.

Guns are pretty readily available in much of this country.

We can play whack a mole or try to blame migrant workers for things they never did, but a real coherent plan is just beyond the capability of this administration, they can't keep team members on board long enough.

Its a pure crap shoot!

Terrorism

On the anniversary of 9-11, it might be worthwhile to look at the state of terrorism and where we are in combatting it.

Now the problem with terrorism is simply that it doesn't have to be complicated elaborate plans or groups it can be as few as one individual driving a vehicle into a group of people.

Of course the damage cause by that is generally relatively minor unless of course you are one of the victims.

Preventing all terrorist attacks is not really feasible but we can prevent a lot of them, or at least make our targets hard to hit.

Now the terrorists are not limited to recent arrivers or refugees, but in many cases people who have been in this country and may even be citizens who get radicalized over some incident.

I guess the good news is that people are much more likely to dies in an automobile accident than be the victim of a terrorist.

I think the fact that terrorists actually want to hurt us is the scariest thing, it seems like there is nothing we can do.

However, of course there is.

See something, say something.

Take it seriously and in all honesty it would be better to report some one's forgotten briefcase or dropped purse hundreds of times than to ignore a planted bomb even once.

Now but you do need to see something, not just be suspicious of a person who looks a little different or dresses differently.

We can do what we can but we can't see or report every possible thing, considering that the next car coming down the street could simply veer into a crowd.

However, be alert and don't be afraid.  Fear is what they want and it is giving them a victory they don't deserve.

Terror as a Tactic

If you defend a terrorist, you are a terrorist.

If you are part of a group, even if you have good intentions, but one or more members of your group engages in terrorism, you either condemn them or you are one of them.

You can't be an innocent bystander when the acts are deadly and hateful.

Now being willing to denounce people you don't like as terrorists but defending people you do like is morally reprehensible.

Now, if you are a terrorist, you actually occupy a less hypocritical position than those who do nothing.

Terrorism, aimed at innocent people is seldom effective.  I suppose the atomic bombing of cities did work and some might not consider that terrorism, but certainly many of the dead had committed no offense except being born Japanese.

In fact the terror in the two world wars sort of undermines the western moral outrage, any tactic that would lead to victory was acceptable, carpet bombing, poison gas, random missiles.

It didn't work, what did work was bombing industrial and military targets, to at least some extent.

I realize that those wars were fought to stop tyranny, at least from our perspective, but they were filled with terrorist acts by both sides.

None of them ended either war, except the atomic bomb one, which is a terrible lesson to say the least.

We will remain strong against both domestic and foreign terrorism, we always have and I expect we always will.

However we have a president who espouses sinking to the same moral plane as our enemies.

Lets not.

Our hearts go out to Barcelona and to Charlottesville.

Constitution, it slows him down

Our megalomaniac president who seems to be afraid of his own shadow said in no uncertain terms that he wants to ban Muslims is whole or in part because they might be terrorists.

Now I'm in favor of banning terrorists and I actually support incarcerating them, but as an American who believes in the constitution there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

Where you are born or who your parents are is not grounds for discrimination.

Some argue that the constitution doesn't apply, but it applies to all our laws and actions as a nation and not just to citizens.  Two people apply for admittance, their religion can't be the reason we accept one and reject the other.

Its our laws and policies that the constitution governs, even if it is inconvenient for someone's political agenda.

When you say the courts are slow and political, they may be, but they are required to follow the constitution.

As of course the president is, someone should tell him.

Our system of Government has its flaws, it led to a president who lost the popular vote by a lot due to the way we set up the electoral college.  However, we abide by the outcome because the constitution is the law of the land, even if its inconvenient.

I'm in favor of amending it to fix its flaws, nothing is ever perfect but that would be through a constitutional process.

Otherwise we have to follow it.

It's the law!

London Bridge

In what appears to be another act of terrorism, six people lost their lives as a Van was crashed into a crowd on the bridge.

The attackers were all killed and the people who died were simply out to have a good time on a Saturday night.

This was a very low tech affair with a van and knives which are hard to control in any country.

I don't know if there is any particular reason that Great Britain seems to be the target recently, might just be a coincidence.

I know they are strong supporters of the war against terrorism.

I know that they have withstood much greater threats and that this isn't going to weaken their resolve.

We need to give them our complete support and show them we are good friends.

It is not a political issue it is a national security issue for us and for them.

It also isn't a religious issue, it started over territory, not religion.

Stand strong with our English friends but don't become the people we fight.

Manchester

Part of the world we now live in includes terror attacks against innocent people, in this case many teens.

Its not clear to me what the perpetrators of these attacks hope to accomplish and I don't know much about the suicide bomber who apparently did this, but the incidents are becoming simply random acts of violence with no real purpose.

Now maybe that is the essence of terror except it would seem that a terror campaign to be effective would have to include a way to avoid the attacks.

I believe the underlying issue is the fact that the West supports Israel, but it has become unclear.

It is also likely that the perpetrator of this was some resident who became radicalized.

In fact, as I write this, they haven't identified the attacker although the police believe it was the work of a single individual, who may or may not have been acting alone.

While likely related to a terrorist cause, it is entirely possible that it was simply the work of a madman.

It gets some attention and causes terrible grief to those who lost loved ones. 

It accomplishes almost nothing else, except perhaps to make the British people more determined to retaliate is some fashion.

This sort of event doesn't change anything on the world stage, it simply kills some innocent concert goers. 

Clearly some will try to use it for political purposes and while of course we need to do everything we can to prevent these tragedies it should make us forget our Western values.

If it does, they have won.

Alternate Facts and Reality

There was a news story about how Mohammad Ali JR was detained at an airport and questioned about his name and religion.

Since he is travelling under a US Passport and was born in this country you might wonder why they wanted to know those things.

I would understand if he was selected for extra screening, this seems to happen somewhat randomly, but where he got his name or what religion he is seems bigoted.

Now today the TSA said they didn't inquire about his name, only asked if he was an Arab and how he got his name.  Now, his passport was clearly an American one and maybe they suspected that it was a false one.

However, saying he wasn't profiled when clearly those are profiling questions, is another example of these alternate facts.

We have a bigot in the white house and he is inspiring more bigotry.  Its getting to be open season.

Now preventing terrorism is of course something I and everybody I know supports.  However stopping American citizens who have Islamic names or who are Muslim is not combating terrorism.

Its simply bigotry.

Can you imagine them questioning an American citizen like this if he was buying a gun?

Those same bigots would be screaming about the 2nd Amendment.

Of course due process is also an important provision in the constitution and whether this meets that criteria will be determined in court.

Reality tells us that a persons country of origin is not an indicator of potential terrorist acts.  Being a member of a terrorist organization is.

The first does not serve as a proxy for the second.

I prefer we stay with reality.

How bad is the Terrorism?

There is a bit of an ongoing argument that terrorism is at incredibly high levels and the media and the public is not aware of how bad it is.

Now clearly terrorism is a dangerous thing, people kill themselves and others in a sign of protest, and it occasionally rises to truly deadly levels, such as 9/11.  However, the odds of dying from a terrorist attack are pretty low, way below many other activities that we do routinely, such as driving.

So is the current emphasis or attempts to limit immigration so vital to our safety?

It certainly doesn't seem like it considering that the people allowed into this country have almost no history of committing acts of terror here.

Of course there are some exceptions, but most terror here is home grown.

That is radicalized people either born here or raised here who for whatever reason decide that we are not a just society.

It isn't even necessarily politically motivated.

To jump to the conclusion that terrorism is primarily a problem with certain Muslims is not supported by the facts.

Most mass violence here is done by non-Muslims.  Now of course I am including any act of public violence in my definition of terrorism while excluding individual homicides. 

Ignoring some of the terrorism, which might simply be the result of a deranged mind or teenage angst is to ignore much of the danger.

Sort of like saying dark skinned drunk drivers are a danger while ignoring all other drunk drivers.

If we want to prevent terrorism we probably need to reduce the easy path, i.e. guns, but that is not "politically correct" in this administration.

Still the number of people who are killed or injured by terrorism in this country is hardly a significant statistic, although even one is too many.  Of course that is true for all human life that is lost.

A More Dangerous World

In all honesty the possibility that the United States and Russia would square off in a war is fairly remote.  I think enough people on both sides realize who destructive such a war would be likely ending in nuclear disaster.

What we saw in the Bush years, aggressive misguided notions of what we can get other people to do leading to deadly regional conflicts that get Americans killed, encourage terrorism, and make the world a more dangerous place.

It seems like the middle east is still the most dangerous area as a naive belief that Jihadists can be defeated by strong arm tactics seems prevalent at the White House again.

This was the mistake that the Bush administration made when it believed that we could impose Western thoughts on Muslim Countries.

It led to bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and recruited thousands of recruits to terrorists organizations.

Now this wasn't solved under the Obama administration, but it didn't get worse.  We saw dictatorships fall in many countries and while ISIS was able to surge it is now being defeated on the ground by Arab troops, not Americans.

We do provide support, mostly air attacks and some on the ground support, but the "skin" in the game is a lot less.

Now, the idea that sending in American troops to quickly put an end to ISIS is misguided since the root issues will still exist and an American presence will surely spur resentment anger and recruitment for terrorists organizations.

The idea that we can effectively colonize a country and take their oil, while militarily possible would lead to nothing but greater danger here as anger would boil over.

The more we provide the terrorists with recruitment materials the more dangerous the world becomes. 

It is also important to note that Americans have no special rights when it comes to being a citizen of the world.  We also face the danger of being arrogant and stupid in a world where every person is equal.

There is a long history of colonial powers trying to dominate the world, it ultimately fails on every level. 

Lets not repeat it.

Our Legacy

America was founded by people escaping oppression or seeking opportunity.  Some were escaping religious oppression, some political and some the oppression of poverty.  Of course some were brought here against their will and were oppressed by those wanting to be free, but that's a different story.

From our earliest days when we considered the country wide open and we accepted if not actually welcomed immigrants.

As immigrants changed from Western European to Southern and Eastern European and Asian the earlier "true" American felt the country was be degraded.

If fact the Irish weren't exactly welcomed during the famine.

Yet immigrants and refugees kept coming and it was so much a part of our history that we have a statue commemorating it.

Recently we see a backlash against certain immigrant groups, our Mexican friends to the south and our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Now we have always had a certain issue with our Latino neighbors, (see Westside Story) and its based on a sense that we are somehow better than them.

Our issues with our Muslim brothers are a bit more entrenched.  While much of their religion is similar to Christianity it isn't viewed that way.

Also due to political developments dating back centuries, we find ourselves in conflict as we defend the rights of Israel against its Arab neighbors.  I should note that Judaism and Islam bear similar relationships to Christianity in that we all effectively worship the same single god.

There are other political issues related to oil, and oppression as well as a belief that Western Culture is corrupt by some, so the complexities go on and there are revolutionary and terrorist groups active in many of those countries.

The majority of the people simply try to live their lives and many have fled to escape the violence.

These refugees are looking for a better life and while of course they consist of all sorts of people, they are mostly people in trouble looking for some place to be safe.

There is no real evidence that the refugees have a link to terrorism.  Turning our backs on people n need is a mean spirited in-American and in-Christian thing to do.

Sadly that's what we are doing.

New Landmark

On September 11, 2001 terrorists were able to destroy two New York landmarks.  Three of their four attacks reached their targets with the fourth being thwarted by the brave passengers on that flight.

I remember being told that a pane had hit the Trade Center and thinking some small plane pilot had made a tragic mistake until I got more information.  You could see the smoke from where I was and it turned out that a work friend of mine had been on one of the planes.

Others suffered much closer losses and whatever the terrorists hoped to accomplish that day they failed.

Yes we lost two landmarks, but as a nation we now have a more permanent landmark of courage and sacrifice that is part of our great history.

Men and women died trying to save others, ignoring the very real danger around them.

Remember those who fell, they are our countrymen and victims of terror.

But also remember the selfless bravery of the men and women who did everything they could to find survivors and help them survive.

Their courage and bravery is our new landmark that we can look at with pride and sadness.

Never Forget!

Assault on America

We have now taken a 19 year old wounded immigrant college student into custody after one of the most intense manhunts in recent history, fully televised.  Assuming he is indeed guilty, I'm glad he has been captured.  Not sure how much evidence they have besides what has been released, and of course once they interrogate him, hopefully he confesses to eliminate any doubt, but what perplexes me is some comments by elected representatives who have declared that he should be held as an enemy combatant, prior to any evidence that would support such an accusation.

The suspect became an American citizen last year, on a possibly odd date, and has no known ties to any international group.  How does that make him an enemy combatant?  We have decided that the bombing was an act of terrorism, and it was, but what was the motive?  No cause has been identified, no foreign group has taken credit, and until they interrogate the suspect, we have nothing from either of the brothers to implicate anyone or anything as a cause.

Are these rants simply because he came here legally and grew up in this country?  In one way or another, we are all either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.  Is it because he professes Islam as his religion?  I believe the constitution give him freedom of religion.

The corruption of liberty is an assault upon America.  The crime perpetrated by the bombers is horrific and should be punished to the full extent of the law.  However, history has taught us that evil people will use horrific acts, either real or imagined, to further their own aims.  We have a system of justice that needs to be used in this case, just like it is used in the Colorado movie shootings, or in any horrific crime where a suspect is captured.  Deciding to pervert our system and deprive American citizens of their rights under the constitution is the real assault on America.