Paradoxical
Reader comment on item: War's New Face

Submitted by Glenn Klotz (United States), Apr 16, 2003 at 08:57

Yes, things are getting stranger and stranger in regards to war. But we shouldn't forget that even in this asymetrical time "the enemy" can inflict enormous death and destruction (9/11) with simple household tools (box cutters) and a fanatical desire to die for the cause. If you couple this same fanaticism and guile with WMD I'm afraid the future still holds some cruel lessons for us in regards to war and it's many faces. The paradox is this just as we in the west are developing over whelming technical war fighting capabilites and coupling them with a more "humane" view of who exactly our enemy is our "terrorist" foes are doing just the opposite. They are becoming less humane and if anything are now purposely targeting civilians instead of military sites. What are we going to do if God forbid they decide to try and terrorize us into submission with Smallpox or Nukes? How are we going to stop them when we can't even find their leaders ( OBL, Mullah Omar, Saddam) and in many cases even identify who they are? Remember this sobering fact thousands of tons of illegal drugs are smuggled into this country every yr. and after 50 yrs. and billions of dollars the problem is worse!! How hard will it be for 1 of these groups to smuggle in a vial of anthrax, smallpox,plague,ebola etc...???

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