Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
February 17, 2017
I’ve very concerned our nation is rapidly returning to a “pre” Sept. 11, 2001, mentality.
Every day, I see an increasing number of people lackadaisically living their lives with seemingly little knowledge of or concern over the threats our nation faces.
Some are even fighting against protecting our country.
Have we truly become so desensitized to terror and death that we’re willing to suppress the lessons of the past and expose ourselves to another attack, possibly even larger than we experienced on 9/11?
Granted, 15 years is a long time. Some millennials were simply too young to remember the frightening view of the planes flying into New York’s World Trade Center.
Some have been spared the horrific memory of innocent people leaping from windows, choosing to die from the fall rather than be consumed by the flames. They’ve no memory of the people screaming, scrambling in terror, on the streets below.
But, I’ll never forget. And neither will many of you. It changed us – forever.
Unfortunately, I believe that confirmation of U.S. vulnerability, combined with eight years of emboldening our enemies, has positioned us dangerously close to an attack unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Now, progressives are sure to default to their conservative “the sky is falling” rhetoric regarding my statement. But that sort of irresponsible thinking will cost lives.
A February 2016 column in the National Review, co-written by R. James Woolsey, national security and energy specialist and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, addresses our “nave reliance” on other country’s “transparent disavowals” potentially costing millions of American lives.
The column, entitled, “Underestimating Nuclear Missile Threats from North Korea and Iran,” revealed the White House had not recognized that North Korea already had demonstrated the ability to kill millions of Americans with an electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) attack.
The attack would involve detonating a small nuclear warhead, a hundred miles or so, over the United States creating an EMP leading to a nationwide blackout. The resulting societal chaos (especially in today’s environment) could lead to overwhelming death and destruction.
Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, as President Trump has described it, is a disaster waiting to happen. Since signing the agreement in mid-2015, Iran has test-launched at least two ballistic missiles, despite a U.N. resolution prohibiting such tests. Every indicator suggests Iran is working diligently to become a formidable nuclear power.
We must remember the threat of nuclear attack from leaders who aren’t afraid to die is very real and very different.
A military standoff resulting from opposing nations being unwilling to be destroyed because they initiated a nuclear attack will not apply. These leaders do not subscribe to the “no-win” scenario.
Yet, liberals are fighting more for the rights of people who could potentially harm our nation than for protecting their own families here at home.
Sadly, we know all it will take is another devastating attack to quickly bring things back into perspective.
But, by then, it may be too late.
Stand down liberals. You had your chance.
Let President Trump do his job and protect the U.S.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
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