Thursday, October 13, 2005
We still haven't figured this out.....
The latest from Norman is a carefully worded statement that Hinrichs appears to have "no links" to terrorist organizations.
Even if the statement is true, which it probably isn't, why the hell does it matter?
A man who commits violent acts on behalf of the enemy is part of the enemy's force.
Same with the Beltway snipers a few years ago. We were supposed to breathe a sigh of relief because Lee Malvo and John Muhammad were not acting on direct orders from Osama's hierarchy. They still killed 13 non-Mohammedan Americans, and froze the Washington area for several weeks, and they did it FOR Osama. They were therefore part of the enemy's army.
As usual, we understood this point accurately in 1941. We knew that large numbers of Japanese on the West Coast were prepared to commit espionage and sabotage FOR the Rising Sun. So we quite properly kept the suspicious ones out of action, along with similar numbers of Italians and Germans who were believed to be ACTING FOR their nations. We didn't have to establish a direct chain of command and control from Tokyo, Berlin, and Rome to each of these individuals.
Can we learn anything? Maybe after the millionth death we might. I doubt it, though. ¶ 7:51 PM
The latest from Norman is a carefully worded statement that Hinrichs appears to have "no links" to terrorist organizations.
Even if the statement is true, which it probably isn't, why the hell does it matter?
A man who commits violent acts on behalf of the enemy is part of the enemy's force.
Same with the Beltway snipers a few years ago. We were supposed to breathe a sigh of relief because Lee Malvo and John Muhammad were not acting on direct orders from Osama's hierarchy. They still killed 13 non-Mohammedan Americans, and froze the Washington area for several weeks, and they did it FOR Osama. They were therefore part of the enemy's army.
As usual, we understood this point accurately in 1941. We knew that large numbers of Japanese on the West Coast were prepared to commit espionage and sabotage FOR the Rising Sun. So we quite properly kept the suspicious ones out of action, along with similar numbers of Italians and Germans who were believed to be ACTING FOR their nations. We didn't have to establish a direct chain of command and control from Tokyo, Berlin, and Rome to each of these individuals.
Can we learn anything? Maybe after the millionth death we might. I doubt it, though. ¶ 7:51 PM
