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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (27403)	4/27/2002 8:31:38 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 281500

not sure if ya'll saw this. on tuesday USA Today reported that oklahoma held a terrorism response exercise. the situation presented was a smallpox outbreak in tulsa. the participants including the governor spent the first 40 minutes discussing (arguing?) about what color alert status they should be in. the article states... "Besides highlighting the widespread confusion over the federal alert system, the Oklahoma drill symbolizes some of the problems that are frustrating state officials as they tackle a formidable task" 40 of the 50 states have budgeted $0.00 for homeland defense. a similar number of states have made no provision to have even one staff member dedicated to the issue. we continue to get a constant stream of attack warnings from federal agencies...but nobody is home at state level to do anything. the color code is useless...i have spoken with local cops, firemen, and doctors. they all have told me they have no plan and know of no comprehensive plan to deal with a terrorist chemical, biological or nuclear attack, nor do they know of any changes to be implemented locally if the color code changes to a higher or lower status. the key to survival in emergencies is prior planning and having the right equipment available. consider this...waiting for a color code red to get ready will place you one day late. America has only been on the highest stae of alert 3x that i know of...pearl harbor, OK city bombing and 9/11...we go on high alert after an attack not before. i urge everyone to consider preparing their own plan for family survival NOW and not rely on officials to tell you what to do when the attack comes. unclewest

To: Bilow who wrote (27403)	4/27/2002 12:05:07 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

So Rowan Scarborough thinks that Desert Storm II can be done with only 40% as much ground troops? And I would concur. The difference between Desert Storm and now is that we're seeking the overthrow of Saddam, which will only be truly accomplished through the empowerment of the Iraqi people. Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves on the planet. And that provides a VERY lucrative rationale for "interested parties" within Iraq to support attempts to overthrow him. Saddam's army is not nearly as large as it was 12 years ago, and our technology is far more potent than it was at that time. The main difficulty is having a base to operate from, and thus far, Turkey appears to be the only one we can rely upon (but only if we deal with the Kurdish issue. We may be able to count on the Kuwaitis, if only for the sake of revenge and giving them a "cut" of the spoils in the disputed border region (where significant oil reserves lie), but I wouldn't completely trust them. Hawk