Four years on...

[Nickatilynx]

Are we any safer?

Could it happen again or has the Gov'ts measure prevented a similar occurance?

Has the action in Iraq made us safer or at greater risk?

[XxXotic]

we're no safer, and we never will be "safe" in that respect. It is impossible to combat a people who are willing to die for their god and who aren't afraid to die. Aside from the element of surprise, having no fear of death is a major weapon for them and a serious disadvantage to us. They're 100x more dedicated to their cause. We're not willing to strap 10lbs of C4 to our chests and blow ourselves up to prove a point. They are, and that is terrifying to say the least

they have the ability to strike anytime, anyplace right under our noses.

[gigi]

I can't believe it's already been 4 years....

[Peaches]

I don't think we're one bit safer. Hell, now a terrorist knows all they need to do is breach a levy system and we're thrown into a major catastrophe.

I don't think there's really a way to make us safe, to be honest. Until we tighten up border controls anyone and everyone who wants into the US will just meander on in.

[gigi]

Hell, now a terrorist knows all they need to do is breach a levy system and we're thrown into a major catastrophe.

Reminds me of all the talk and fears after 9/11 about Vegas disappearing if the Hoover Dam was breached...I remember thinking there's no way the US would let that happen after 9/11...security now would be impenitrable. Now post-Katrina, although I still feel security must be high at the Dam, I'm not as confident as I was...

[MorganGrayson]

Are we any safer?

Could it happen again or has the Gov'ts measure prevented a similar occurance?

Has the action in Iraq made us safer or at greater risk?

We're "safer" in the sense that we no longer believe we're untouchable. That's about the only sense, though.

Could it happen again? Yes. Government measures couldn't prevent anything.

All Iraq has done is illustrate again that we didn't learn anything from Vietnam. There are certain cultures we are helpless against. We had soldiers killed in Southeast Asia by women and children with bombs strapped to them. We're standing there with candy bars in our hands, ready to do the Audie Murphy movie bit and got blasted to pieces. If the soldiers shot to defend themselves, they were "baby killers." We'll never be able to defend ourselves against an enemy we refuse to accept: these people literally do not care whether they live or die. How the hell do you fight something like that? There won't be any Christmas Eve "meet across the trenches, share a flask and show pics of the kids" in this war. Those days have been gone for half a century.

But, we'll pour money on it.

New Orleans won't have a levee and high school "graduates" can't read.

[Trev]

I don't think we're one bit safer. Hell, now a terrorist knows all they need to do is breach a levy system and we're thrown into a major catastrophe.

I don't think there's really a way to make us safe, to be honest. Until we tighten up border controls anyone and everyone who wants into the US will just meander on in.
I don't think tightening the borders will help, the London bombers were UK citizens. So it's the attack from the inside that's the kicker. :(

[Nickatilynx]

I don't think we're one bit safer. Hell, now a terrorist knows all they need to do is breach a levy system and we're thrown into a major catastrophe.

I don't think there's really a way to make us safe, to be honest. Until we tighten up border controls anyone and everyone who wants into the US will just meander on in.

Look at the recent UK attacks.

Homegrown Muslim terrorists.

You sure you ain't got any?

[XxXotic]

Look at the recent UK attacks.

Homegrown Muslim terrorists.

You sure you ain't got any?people get arrested on a weekly basis being "suspected" but that doesn't much make any difference, they're like roaches, kill one and 5 more scurry about to take its place.

[MorganGrayson]

Of course we have them.

Apparently the "Cold War" is another thing from which we learned nothing. I think everyone in our government should be foreced to sit down and read Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" series. (No cheating and watching the movies. They left out *way* too much and got a lot of what they put in wrong.) The Capitol building and entire US governement was taken out...with a plane. There was a bioweapon that would have worked, too. And of course, the ever popular Cold War standard...sleeper agents.

One of the glories and one of our current problems is that you can't tell "an American" by sight. We have ever race, ethnic heritage, religion and combination thereof. Blending in here doesn't actually take the skills of a Cold War spy. In a lot of places you don't even have to speak English to survive. (Trust me, I'm from California. We have neighborhoods where I can't read the street signs...or the translations of the street signs.) All these "good guys" are walking around with absolutely no idea whether or not the new neighbor from the "old country" is a good guy like them...or a bad guy. Like all good guys, they're very easy to fool. Case in point was the school in England that's all under therapy muttering "he was such a nice guy" about one of the London bombers.

We are so far away from even grasping the terrorist headset that when my Israeli brother-in-law got pulled out of line at the airport to have the massive shakedown, they told his small nosed, blue eyed wife she could take the kids on the plane ahead. Now...if my brother-in-law planned on doing something to that plane...his family was going to be on it. So what the hell made these people think it was safe to let his family go on ahead? Bombs and weapons could have been strapped to all three kids and his wife. But *he* had the "Middle Eastern" face, so they practicially strip searched him. (Nice time wasting thing there...confusing a Jew for an Arab.)

[ThrobX]

I'll tell you what I've learned over the past 4 years. People in general, but specifically Americans...

A] Don't learn lessons from past mistakes
B] Are fools (see "looking to their government to make them safer")
C] Are idiots (see "willing to sacrifice freedoms for safety")

That's it. We aren't any safer or less safe than 4 years ago. We're the same as we were, and it's a wonder it took until 2001 for us to get hit.