Homeland Defense Is You and Me

I wrote this column Wednesday night. I had no clue what the president was going to say about "homeland defense" or that he would create a Cabinet post for that purpose. For the complete article on "homeland defense," check out Parameters magazine, Autumn 2001.

In case you hadn't noticed, the last week or so there is a new term being bandied about – homeland defense. The "new" concept did not arise out of the devastation of September 11, 2001. The idea of a homeland defense as a governmental entity has been brewing in the military and civilian policy centers for some time.

What does it mean? Whenever I smell more government agencies in the making, I head toward the policy wonk magazines, tomes like the one put out by the Council on Foreign Relations or the military magazines like Parameters or the Naval War College Review. You can get a good idea where we are headed policy-wise if you look them up occasionally. I bet you thought I got all my ideas straight out of my head.

According to the Autumn 2001 issue of the Army publication Parameters, the idea of a homeland defense has been bandied about for quite a while because the military is confused as to what its mission should be. The reason for that is because our leaders are confused and have their prime directives screwed up. Those prime directives include protection of the borders of this country and protection of the citizens both from outside invasion and from government abuse itself.

The question then becomes: Is the military supposed to be an arm of the civilian bureaucracy in the domestic drug war, or is it supposed to protect the drug lords of the Muslim KLA in Kosovo against the Christian Serbs and Croats? Is the military supposed to conduct meals-on-wheels in Haiti and the Sudan only to have our troops killed by the people we are supposedly trying to protect? Or is the modern military required to be a social agency for every goofy social concept that comes down the pike – or what? Is the military a police force, a bunch of camouflaged peace corps volunteers, or a fighting machine that wins wars and protects us from harm?

According to Terrence Kelly, who wrote Parameters' "Homeland Defense" article:

It is useful to note that "homeland defense" has multiple meanings. In the context of this article, it indicates defense against new and yet-unknown threats that are not readily addressed by the existing military structure. Missions such as national missile defense, defeating traditional military forces that might invade the nation, and defense against strategic bombers would remain with the military. It will also become apparent that some overlap with military missions is unavoidable on issues such as cyber-defense, but these are manageable.

According to Kelly, here is what is up: "Federal policy for homeland defense is the National Security Council's 'National Coordinator for Security, Critical Infrastructure, and Counterterroism (National Coordinator).' The National Security Council has created the National Preparedness and Counterterrorism Policy Coordination Committee. Kelly relates, "[T]o connect policy to resources, the Office of Management and Budget established a 'National Security Crosscut' that uses subgroups in the National Security Council to look at cross-governmental programs."

Is that clear so far?

Furthermore, Kelly asserts:

A frequently mentioned but more drastic solution would be the creation of a Department of Homeland Defense. This would involve moving assets that are critical to homeland defense out of their current organizations (e.g., the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Guard, Coast Guard, elements of the FBI), and placing them in this new department. Creating a Department of Homeland Defense would help solve all three shortcomings described above. It would establish a dedicated center of gravity for these issues with the ability to craft crosscutting policies and programs that address national rather than departmental issues. It would have a dedicated place in the President's Budget Submission like all other departments and agencies.

In other words, in this time of national soul searching, finger pointing, head banging, blame shifting, strategies, policies, lamentations and weeping, kinda sorta acts of war, our government, hangers on, opportunists, potential scam artists, and the entire establishment of congresscritters, defense people, policy wonks, capitalists, government unions, and think tanks with big ideas, I am betting the fix is in. We are going to get yet another expensive layer of government to coordinate the other expensive layers of government. That way the other incompetent agencies and the new incompetent agencies will all have a "dedicated budget." We the people will have NEW protectors who will not do any better job than the old protectors. But oh well, who is counting? It is only our freedom, our money, and now our lives at stake.

Homeland defense. Rather than creating another multizillion-dollar nightmarish agency which will NEVER go away, which will expand the police powers of the state, why not INSTEAD empower the citizenry to do what the founders originally intended?

Homeland defense. My own investigation tells me that many of the terrorists have been caught accidentally – by wide-awake and suspicious – yes, even paranoid – Americans. For instance, the person at the desk at the flight school in Minnesota. That person was the instrument for catching one of those who would have been among the bombers in the Black Tuesday plot.

The alleged terrorist in question is named Moussaoui. He was detained Aug. 17 in Minnesota on immigration concerns after he aroused suspicions by seeking to buy time on a flight simulator for jetliners at a Minnesota flight school, law enforcement officials said. French intelligence officials told the U.S. Moussaoui was a serious threat with ties to bin Laden. He had overstayed his class 2 visa.

Many of these creeps are from the best families in the Middle East and many of them are coming through Canada with pockets full of money. So much for poor, dispossessed refugees looking for comfort in the Great Satan of North America. It is very easy for them to get into Canada on a permanent basis, much easier than for white Europeans or non-minorities.

I would challenge you to try and get a Canadian citizenship or living permit sometime. You have to be young, or loaded if you are old. You could have a crucial skill, but here age still counts. If you are young and have a certified promise of employment, you can make the cut, OR if you are from a preferred ethnic group from the Third World you have a better chance than I would. I know for a fact it is easier for a Pakistani or a terrorist from Saudi to get into Canada than a German or Italian engineer with peaceful intentions. If you are a poor, old, white American, forget it.

During an April 14, 1999, hearing on the connection between terrorism and immigration, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, then chairman of the House subcommittee on immigration and claims, said, "One of the most dangerous threats to our national security is the risk of a terrorist crossing our northern border undetected."

During the hearing, Smith illustrated his point with a true story: "This happened in 1997 when Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer crossed the northern border and attempted to blow up the New York subway system."

As recently as 1998, Canadian intelligence reported as many as 50 terrorist groups operating in Canada, which were engaged in "fundraising in aid of terrorism, smuggling, providing logistical support for terrorist acts and providing transit to and from the United States," said Smith.

How about this for homeland defense: Let's tell Canada you folks can do what you want, but the deal is you either shift your immigration policies AWAY from letting in every single inhabitant of the Third World who has a gripe, or else. Put a lid on it till this "war on war" in North America is over. That might hurry along the end of that war in jolly good time. Our borders with Mexico are bad enough, but for some reason Canada is blind to the fact that many of the terrorists are finding lodging, support, funding and an alternative route into the U.S. through Canada.

Homeland defense. The enemies of our enemies are our friends. Canada had better decide which enemy it wants.

Homeland defense. End our own foolish immigration policies. Most of the Muslim world despises the West – especially the United States. History shows this, and if you are honest that is a fact we have to face. Demonstrations in the Muslim and Islamic world in celebration of the WTC horror were across the board in the Middle East. The people despise us and the governments are two-faced and talk out of both sides of their mouths. They often hate us simply because we are not Muslim and because we ARE American. They hate us because we send Madonna and Britney Spears and Nikes to their shores.

Let's give the Islamic world what it wants and get out of their lives even as we slam the door on them in the bargain. We have given these countries billions in aid and we let their people immigrate here. A healthy dose of self-interest is called for at this particular moment. When the threat is passed, then we can reconsider our policies, but not before.

We know where these terrorists are coming from. To be brutally honest and totally un-PC, they are not blond, blue-eyed Norwegians or red-haired Irishman from Dublin. Above all, this might put pressure on their governments to cooperate in ending terrorism. It is sad to have to punish an entire group, but hey – this is war. I bet my retirement that Middle Eastern governments would give us their full cooperation in short order if we stopped being so cotton-pickin' mealy-mouthed and wishy-washy about where these attacks are coming from.

In any event, put a moratorium on all immigration for at least three years or until the war is over. We didn't let Nazi tourists into the U.S. during WWII, did we? We didn't train the SS in our flight schools in Pensacola that I know of. We should not be training terrorists or allowing them access to our educational facilities in order to use them against us – that is, unless we have a death wish.

Homeland defense. Americans who have been denuded of their right to keep and bear arms should be encouraged to buy weapons. They should be encouraged to learn gun safety and how to protect their space, families and communities. The Constitution as well as the writings of our wise founders indicate that every single male was supposed to be a part of the militia.

In Switzerland every householder keeps a weapon. Each and every householder should have one in the U.S. if they want to be involved in homeland defense. Everyone, that is, EXCEPT those with a violent criminal record of multiple crimes or those who have falsified their green cards and visas or are illegal aliens. Train Americans, men and women who want to learn how to use a weapon. Weapons are meant for protection and self-preservation. That also might include martial arts or even psychological ways to protect themselves when they are confronted by any violent criminals.

Want to give our young folks something to do to fire them up in a positive Way? Weaving daisy chains is for the '60s. Since we are at war, perhaps offer our kids courses in American history – the older version, not the one they teach in school these days. The history taught in America at present teaches that we are the great evil of the world. That we are at best thoughtless, insensitive, selfish clunks who deserve what we got on September 11, 2001. In other words, we are portrayed as oafish bastards. It is a politically correct history that says our institutions, ideals and heroes are rotten and we need to forget about them. Schools by implication and political correctness are teaching that we need to believe all cultures and religions and groups are better than ours. That mostly we are guilty of having too much.

Let's go back to the past where there were no murders in schools and kids were not on Paxil and Ritalin. Long ago schools taught kids how to defend themselves. They allowed gun clubs and boy scouts and survival training and ROTC. We have got to get some of that back and tell our kids once more it is okay to be an American and to fight back..

By the grace of God and our hard work, we are the envy of the world. That means we are the focus of envy and hatred and jealousy. Those emotions take strange forms in the modern world. Those forms are Third World religious zealotry and hatred of our way of life. We have to deal with that reality. We have to fight back, and throwing flowers will not work with crazed religious zealots. The fact is the kumbaya flower-child days of the '60s have gotten us more than 6,000 dead and dying. If we don't, can't or won't get over our politically correct leftist progressive moronic ways, we will die or be subject to the tyranny of our own government.

Your Space, Your Life

My brother is a former homicide detective and is now a federal marshal. Long Ago, when I was a cute young chick, he told me if someone puts a gun or a knife in your ribs and tells you to drive him somewhere – yell fire and run like hell. Whatever you do, don't get in the car or vehicle with him. You are better off getting shot where you stand, hopefully in a lighted area where people come and go. It is better to get shot someplace someone will see you than to be taken to a dark road, shot, then bleed to death where no one can help you.

In any event, FIGHT BACK, use your car keys, poke him in the eye, kick him where the sun don't shine, but fight back and yell fire. Create such a scene he will think he went to hell and the devil is after him. My brother still maintains that you are not helpless and 911 is not always around. ( I have a story about my own experience. Write to me if you want to hear it.) Similarly, we should be aware that we may have to defend ourselves from terrorists just as the men of Flight 93 did.

The men of United Flight 93 are now heroes. They are heroes because they gave their lives so that others might live. It is probable that your congressmen, our president, or some combination of leaders is alive today because Flight 93 was prevented from completing its perverted objective. It becomes apparent that objective might have been to dive into the White House or Congress.

The men on Flight 93 were not soldiers or FBI agents, they were young businessmen. After all is said and done, they were pissed-off Americans who said, "Not now, not ever!" They fought back knowing they would die. These men are more than heroes, they are examples of American can-do spirit. We were blessed by God to have had them among us. Their families should be proud, and I hope Hollywood has a benefit for their needs. In the words of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer, "Let's roll."

The unpleasant truth is that we are at war and have been for years. When the first terrorist took American hostages in 1979 in Iran, when they blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, the thousand and one incidents involving Americans here and overseas should have warned us that we already had more than one Pearl Harbor.

Since we are at war, ethnic or racial profiling IS called for. Since we know the IRA is not attacking us, and certain members of the Islamic world are, we have got to be prudent and be aware that our problem is coming from the Middle East. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, they were NOT looking for a black man who did the shooting, I know for a fact that they were stopping white men in Memphis and that is as it should have been. .Common sense is called for here.

The Chinese fire drill operations in the federal bureaucracy have got to cease. For once I agree with former drug czar Barry McCaffery: Put all the agencies involved under the FBI and the CIA. Beef up the Coast Guard and give them the help and money they need – but whatever you do, for crying out loud, do NOT create another bureaucracy. It will never ever go away. If and when the war on terrorism recedes, they will find other reasons to exist and will require a never-ending budget for their ever-expanding needs.

We MUST allow the U.S. military to do what it is supposed to do. It is not supposed to be meals-on-wheels or a social service agency, as it was under Bill Clinton. The U.S. military is supposed to kill people and break things – and protect the U.S. from foreign attack.

The bottom line is that the best homeland defense is you and me. We must reclaim our ability to be self-reliant, aware, awake and willing to fight back if we must. It is a more dangerous world and we can't afford political correctness or the leftist guilt trip laid on us since the '60s. We cannot afford to let fear rule or defeat us. Otherwise we will go back to our complacency and apathy and our illusive and dependent hope that the government will protect us, a hope that the families of the people who died in the World Trade Center might find hollow. The fact is that sometimes 911 is us.

If the government wants to do something besides go after the bastards, they might give us a fighting chance. They might help prepare each and every citizen loyal to this country for what may come. They can empower us to defend ourselves and then allow us to do so. We shouldn't expect – we can't expect – government to do it all. We didn't start off that way.

We are not a helpless people – the events following Black Tuesday show that. We are not helpless. We are, after all, Americans.

Please visit my website at www.aldenchronicles.com
or write to me care of wulfric8@bellsouth.net.