Do not believe either of these columnists belong in your imaginary category, -
<br>-WW-2 generation, vast life experiences to draw on --the greatest generation, -as Tom Brokal writes about.
<br>-If there are particular recent pertinent articles by these columnists please reference the title, date, and paper for us and your view of bias journalism that applies.
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<br>-Would again refer you to the article on Haq by Woodward posted .
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<br>-The U S is in a war with terrorists, well organized, intelligent, devious, presently headquartered and the guest of the Talib in Afghanistan and now with offshoot terrorist cells spread worldwide.
<br>-Their goal is to wage and spread Jihad -"holy war " to drive all they perceive to be infidels out of the holy lands. They will continue to kill innocent people by the thousands and apparently select young students to brainwash in hatred and train in terrorist training camps for selected missions as a major part of their strategy.
<br>-Domestically we are not prepared, -Nightline last evening had a town meeting with various heads of Gov. offices, Numerous questions and answers were posed on how to handle major civilian crisis and overwhelming medical emergencies from terrorist attacks, -the major concern was biological weapons, --small pox, -which the former Soviet Union had stockpiled and no one can really account for, -and other potential bio weapons like anthrax spores release into the air.
<br>--A new Office was created to co ordinate national civil defense and hopefully coordinate all the various organizations in place. -One main existing problem seemed to be getting the funding, -several billion available, and more recently allocated, -directly to the people on the front lines of a crisis, -that is the firemen, -and special gear and equipment required, police, -hospitals, medics, -health organization, decease control .Of the billions allocated only several million actually get to these people on the front lines where it is most needed, --much is currently wasted in duplication and lost in too many numerous gov. layers to function or work together .,hopefully that will now change .
<br> That seemed to go over the head of Ted Kopple ,his conclusion-in final summation stated the missile defense program should be stopped and those funds should also be made available for civil defense . We need both, -many potentially hostile countries are working on this, -an intercontinental ballistic missile coming in from the upper atmosphere at more than 3000 mph loaded with bio weapons is currently impossible to stop, hopefully satellite technologies, -potential laser weapons, with GPS, research and development will provide the solutions to this and many other problems in the near future. -Ideally these weapons upon launch would be blown up over those who would use them.
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<br>-Believe it is vital to allow the Afghan people either through the Northern Alliance or the emergence of a new leader like Haq of the aforementioned article to defeat the Talib. We need to assist them in taking Kabul, the capitol, and coordinate our military efforts only against the identified terrorist camps.
<br>-Again the terrorist goal is to wage and spread a holy war, --Sudam Hussein stated the same a decade earlier while invading neighboring Kuwait and lobbing missiles at Israel. Terrorists and the Talib have stated they need to win the minds and hearts of the people, -what they really need is to incite them into the same hatred, one easy way for them to accomplish this is to slaughter entire villages, -perhaps thousands of Afghans that may be of different groups other than Talib and blame it on U S troops if they are anywhere near the area. –Expect to see this attempted if we have U S military strikes. With U S surplus supplies they have available it would not be difficult to fake for the cameras. What better method of inciting not only other Afghans, but also other bordering countries.
<br> Any that have read a history book understands how volatile the region is, -WW1 began there under similar circumstances, -only this time we have bordering nations with nuclear weapons.
<br>-We are currently building alliances with as many nations in the region as possible, clearly communicating our intent of bringing the terrorists to justice. We have no interest in territories or nation building, -we need to take time, -let other Afghan fighting forces emerge, assist them in every way, once they take the capitol and defeat the main Talib forces, use the intelligence information gathered to locate and eliminate the terrorists.
<br>-Reading between the lines of existing reports believe the Sec. Of State has been arguing this approach over those at the Pentagon favoring a more direct military immanent action.
<br>--We of course already have a huge supply of food and humanitarian supplies available and sounds as though the exiled former king would serve as an interim government until free elections could take place.
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<br>We will continue to eliminate the terrorist cells as we have over the last few weeks with better intelligence and a continuous commitment to exterminate their sources, money supplies, -training camps, and strike swiftly and completely when they are identified. -We have to examine in depth the military blunders, the inaction, and failed policies of past administrations leading to this and not repeat the same errors and historical mistakes.
<br> We also have to keep a vigilance on those who we do assist from being defeated or overrun by supplying military weapons to them for defense from then emerging a decade latter to further destabilize the region with military action.
<br> The U S does not want to become the worlds police, but more readily understanding that this may be the only way the world survives a major biological extermination or nuclear winter over the next century.
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