9-11: Five Years Later

It’s hard to believe but it’s been five years since that dark day in September, 2001, when our world changed forever. As Americans pause to remember the greatest horror to befall our nation since Pearl Harbor we ask ourselves the all important questions: are we safer, can it happen again and when the War on Terror end?
To the safer question the answer is obviously yes because we are taking the menace of terrorism seriously. Before Sept. 11, Americans thought of terrorism as the stuff of comic books, paperback thrillers and action movies rather than a deadly reality. Today we know that terrorism particularly Islamic terrorism is a threat and we are prepared to face it.
The government has taken a lot of precautions against terrorism, some of them effective and some of them little more than window dressing. On the positive side President Bush’s offensive against terrorism seems to have worked the aggressive CIA roundup of terror suspects, the secret prisons, electronic eavesdropping, the invasion of Afghanistan have broken up Al Qaeda and stopped its outrages even the invasion of Iraq which has gotten Al Qaeda bogged down in a war in that country.
On the negative side here at home the War Terror seems to have degenerated into an excuse for pork-barrel spending and bureaucratic empire building. Most of the precautions taken here at home are a waste of time and money. The Department of Homeland Security serves no real purpose, the security precautions at the airports will keep our planes safe by deterring the terrorists who will simply direct their attacks elsewhere. The proposals for increased security at ports and other places seem more like a corporate welfare scheme for the private security industry than genuine plans for defense. Meanwhile real efforts such as electronic eavesdropping and plain clothes air marshals on airliners are hobbled by politics and bureaucratic stupidity.
To the can it happen again question, the answer is more complex. I seriously doubt anybody will be able to hijack an airliner and crash it into a city like the Sept. 11 monsters did. The minute a nut gets up on a plane and tries to hijack it in the future he’ll be mobbed or perhaps lynched by the passengers.
Another major terrorist attack using different tactics is probably inevitable. It hasn’t happened yet because the CIA and the Pentagon have effectively dismantled Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda’s resources simply aren’t as great as we were led to believe. On the other hand there are lot of would be Islamic fanatics out there who want to hurt and kill us sooner or later enough of them will get sufficient funding and organization to launch another catastrophic attack against the US, India, Israel or Europe it probably won’t happen next week but it’ll happen someday.
The final question is how long will the war on terror last and when will it end? My answer is this the War on Terror will end the Islamic extremism that drives the terrorists is discredited as an ideology. That will only happen after the Islamic extremists have suffered catastrophic defeats on the battlefield as the Nazis and Japanese Imperialists did or they have held power for awhile and have been exposed as the tyrants and gangsters they really are as the Communists were. My guess is that won’t happen for years probably until around the year 2020.
So strap yourselves in folks it’s going to be a long and ugly war in which we’ll see many more Sept. 11 anniversaries.