Hurricanes vs Terrorists...Are We Ready?

[BumpyintheBurgh]

Sorry to follow that thought provoking thread, Who Shaves?, with a off-topic question but after wathcing the chaos develop in New Orleans and the response of our federal government to the hurricane, it make me wonder if we are really ready for a terrorist attack such as a dirty bomb, or some other biological/chemical attack that would affect a large population. Our politicians tell us we're safer... but are we?
And if your bike gets contaminated, will Simple Green get it clean?

[ergott]

No. You can't be. If terrorists have killing in their mind, they can do it. Israel is propably the best at counterterrorism because they face it on a daily basis and even they can't prevent every attack. We would have to give up too many civil liberties in order to tighten up against terrorists. Then we would no longer be in the "free" country we are in anymore.

[William]

Well, as far as I can see, all that money that went into Homeland security pretty much just powers the Terror Alert lights. All that flicking back & forth from Yellow to orange to Red wastes lot's of electricity. :rolleyes: (tongue in cheek ;) )

So far I don't see where all the prep has done much of anything. The response seems to be slower then past Hurricane catastrophies in other areas (Floridians correct me if I'm wrong). How many days have gone by now and there has been hardly a response. I just heard the Mayor of N.O. blasting the feds and asking them to get off their "A"'s and get help in there.

This may or may not be a proper comparison that I heard earlier, but a person asked; How come at the end of the Vietnam war we were able to airlift out thousands of people from Saigon while under heavy fire, yet so far hardly anyone is being aired out, and someone fires off a shot and all rescue activities are suspended?"


William

[BarryG]

make me wonder if we are really ready for a terrorist attack
evidently you're not the only one raising the question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050902/ts_nm/weather_katrina_terrorism_dc

[JohnS]

Much of security depends on what we do personally. Why wait for Big Brother to help? How much drinking water do you have stored. How much canned food? Do you have a water purifier? Do you have a ready supply of money at home? Do you own, and are you proficient with a firearm, in case law and order break down? Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, you're as bad as the government you so readily criticize.

[ergott]

Much of security depends on what we do personally. Why wait for Big Brother to help? How much drinking water do you have stored. How much canned food? Do you have a water purifier? Do you have a ready supply of money at home? Do you own, and are you proficient with a firearm, in case law and order break down? Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, you're as bad as the government you so readily criticize.

A worthy response.

[TimB]

I keep asking myself - what if instead of a hurricane breaching the levees, they had been blown up by a terrorists bomb? What would the response have been then?

[BarryG]

.

[OldDog]

I keep asking myself - what if instead of a hurricane breaching the levees, they had been blown up by a terrorists bomb? What would the response have been then?


I can only imagine a much faster response as the destruction would not be spread over two/three states with Gov't agencies being spread thin. But you can bet your best silk tubie that someone would critisize them for not getting there fast enough.

[William]

Much of security depends on what we do personally. Why wait for Big Brother to help? How much drinking water do you have stored. How much canned food? Do you have a water purifier? Do you have a ready supply of money at home? Do you own, and are you proficient with a firearm, in case law and order break down? Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, you're as bad as the government you so readily criticize.

Yes to all the above.


William

[csb]

homeland security _ isnt that a satellite office of halliburton

[William]

homeland security _ isnt that a satellite office of halliburton

Yes, the money keeps going there, yet no one can find it.


William

[BumpyintheBurgh]

Much of security depends on what we do personally. Why wait for Big Brother to help? How much drinking water do you have stored. How much canned food? Do you have a water purifier? Do you have a ready supply of money at home? Do you own, and are you proficient with a firearm, in case law and order break down? Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, you're as bad as the government you so readily criticize.
Yeah, I'm bad... real bad...no bottled water, just my Dom Perignon, and I eat my caviar fresh, certainly never from a can. Don't really need a gun when my personal bodyguard can protect me. As for money, the rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or much less than you.

So it's all about personal accountability...Then what role should the federal government play in a major catstrophe like this?

Are you bad...If you are poor and your home is a room in a New Orleans tenement or a shack in the rural bayou country and you have no job or work for minimun wage, live paycheck to paycheck with all the money coming in going back out each week for subsistence living, which describes a lot of the people you're seeing on the news...I'm sure that storing bottled water, canned food, and buying purifiers are the last thing on their mind.

I guess the solution is to privitize the government and give everyone a gun.

[JohnS]

Yeah, I'm bad... real bad...no bottled water, just my Dom Perignon, and I eat my caviar fresh, certainly never from a can. Don't really need a gun when my personal bodyguard can protect me. As for money, the rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or much less than you.

So it's all about personal accountability...Then what role should the federal government play in a major catstrophe like this?

Are you bad...If you are poor and your home is a room in a New Orleans tenement or a shack in the rural bayou country and you have no job or work for minimun wage, live paycheck to paycheck with all the money coming in going back out each week for subsistence living, which describes a lot of the people you're seeing on the news...I'm sure that storing bottled water, canned food, and buying purifiers are the last thing on their mind.

I guess the solution is to privitize the government and give everyone a gun.
I don't know why I'm dignifying an answer to your sarcastic b*ll****, but here goes...I was referring to members of this forum who are criticizing the government. Anyone on this forum CAN afford those things. If you had a better comprehension of the written word, you would have understood it.

[Cadence230]

I don't know why I'm dignifying an answer to your sarcastic b*ll****, but here goes...I was referring to members of this forum who are criticizing the government. Anyone on this forum CAN afford those things. If you had a better comprehension of the written word, you would have understood it.
__________________
I may grow older but I'll never grow up.
Life is too serious to take seriously.

[CJH]

The people of New Orleans who could AFFORD the "personal accountability" were the million or so who actually left the days prior to Katrina's landfall...