Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Terrorists are stupid.

Let's be honest. How many people expect a weapon of mass destruction to be used by some half assed terrorist? Honestly? Sure, would they like to, certainly. Would they do it if they could, yup. But can they? Ah....

Answer: they're too stupid.

Think about it. I can figure out a better terrorist attack than any of these bozos. You want terror? Screw the twin towers, go after Grand Central Station with a biological weapon, a little smallpox, for example, maybe plague, and you can infect half the east coast within hours. Suicide bombers in the terminal during rush hour would also be effective.

Look at Grant Central for a moment, okay? No security checks. No metal detectors, x-rays, nothing. Even I could make an anti-personnel bomb and bring it inside.

Think about it: bioweapons and suicide bombers would both leave the station virtually intact, and the building would eventually be reopened. But in the meantime, traffic would be shot to hell, and once it's reopened... well, would YOU want to go back there? The damage would be done. The terminal would be seen by millions of people as a plague-infected site by the ignorant, or it would be seen as a monument of death. It would be a lingering, lasting monument to a victory that would cost hundreds [suicide bomber] if not thousands, or millions of lives [bioweapon].

Traffic would be crippled, either by a lack of people coming in, or by the level of security now required to fully scan everyone coming on or off a train, into or out of the station. It would be a NIGHTMARE, worse than blowing up the 59th street bridge.

But why haven't they? I can make mustard gas, or a bomb. My MOTHER is a medical technologist, and she can make a bioweapon in our kitchen. Is it so impossible for al-Qaeda to find five guys to get an associates degree in London for medical technology, or chemistry, for them to get the same level of education? Anyone can come in through the Canadian or Mexican-US border, so why hasn't something like that happened?

Because they're STUPID.

It's not even their fault really. Most terrorists are idiots. The IRA for example. They've blow up the wrong targets, caught more people in the crossfire than some Palestinian terrorists, and the Palestinians are AIMING for the civillians. Then there was the Japanese Red Army unit brought in to Israel to aid the Palestinians-- they got cut down in the airport because they didn't know the Israelis had security! Idiots.

Thomas Aquinas once suggested that sin makes you stupid, and I think he's right.

When I can be more creative than Al-Qaeda, something is definitely wrong here.

And one day, I suspect, we will see an attempted nuclear strike on America. They may even make it happen. Why do I say that would be stupid?

Because they'd be dead.

Mecca, Medina, gone. Saudi Arabia, gone. Oil fields? Saudi's population is mostly on the shoreline, away from the oil. Syria? Israel can have them, if they want them. Iran will either disarm, or be destroyed. And God help anyone who gave them a nuke in the first place [PRC? PRNK? Russia?]. The party will be over. War on terror would be finished. And would the world protest? No, because they know that a nuke is crossing the line.

The UN would complain, as would all the usual suspects, but would they really do anything to try to harm us? Nope, why would they? Environmental disasters? Not really, the Middle east is a large sandlot, and the populations that aren't nuked can be transplanted [although the winds won't be able to carry the radiation that far east, and remember that OUR nukes come with very little fallout].

Aren't I being callous about this? A nuclear strike would be on either NY or DC [and the Secretary of agriculture would be the head of the country]. Well, if DC, we've got elections, and the bureaucracy is really hard to destroy, not to mention the amount of bunkers floating around. The Pakistani bomb requires a warhead the size of a volleyball, and MAY destroy midtown Manhattan [US warheads are the size of a bottle of Pepsi and can vaporize the 5 boroughs], and I live in Queens, so I should be relatively safe, because I intend to run like hell after the initial explosion, or at least head East, away from the fallout.

Or I'll be dead, and I won't have to worry much about it, now would I?

But truthfully, I don't think it'll ever come to that, because, as I've noted, they're STUPID. If they were serious about attacking us, they'd do it. They'd be sending people across the border daily for the sole purpose of sending them directly to a target. Any target. My father, a professor in Philosophy, came up with the idea of blowing up the New Orleans dam as a terrorist attack FIVE YEARS AGO. What is their problem that a family of academics dickering around with this as a mental exercise can come up with a better plan than bin Laden himself?

They're stupid. The only reason they could even get away with 9/11 is that the hostage playbook said be calm, you'll be ransomed for later, just play nice with the hostages. After 9/11, we knew better. Even Flight 93 knew better. Sneaker-Bomber Boy was nearly torn apart by the passengers around him, so we know the rules have changed. I want to see some terrorist pull a box cutter on board a plane coming out of La Guardia and see how long he lasts.

The terrorist threat to this country remains, but there are days I think it's just a threat. Looking at the kill ratios in Iraq, and the genius exhibited thus far by the Al-Qaeda crew over there [who have admitted in private memos that they are getting their ass kicked], all I can see is that they're being beaten senseless. We keep fighting them, and they remain a potential threat to the homeland proper, and certainly to our guys in country.

But, fine, they kill 2,000 of US army troops. Between, 30 and 60,000 prisoners are held in Iraq right now, and those are only the survivors [considering how many people get brought in from out of town, that's not that many prisoners]. Considering that the US army is not a police force, 60,000 prisoners may be a tenth of the insurgents encountered [the US army doesn't do body counts anymore]. This of course, doesn't count the suicide bombers who blow themselves up, adding to the body count on their side.

And according to my friend Jason at IR, in any individual sweep we net 150-1,000 people, and that's not counting prolonged engagements

During WW2, the US lost 3,000 people on Ohmaha beach by NOON of D-day. We've lost 2,000 in four years, in two wars, where for every one person they kill, we get at least thirty, and that's just a guess from someone who doesn't even look at a body count. It's more likely 50-1 odds, and the 50 number isn't OUR body count.

If this was a fair fight, I'd be worried, but you know what....?

They're stupid.

Unfortunately, as I write this, I know some Lefitst Liberal Looney somewhere will use this and twist it to say "WMDs are unimportant."

No, they are important, and you know why?

Because sometimes idiots can get lucky.

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