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From Andrewsullivan.com:
quote:THE UNASKABLE QUESTION: This following awful scenario keeps occurring to me. If we shortly prove that biological warfare has indeed been launched upon the United States from a foreign source, what will our response be? In the past, we have had a doctrine that a biological attack upon American citizens would open the possibility of nuclear response. But against whom? How? Where? This is the bluff that the terrorists have just successfully called. By starting the biological war piece-meal, they have been very smart. Because the casualties are as yet minuscule, and the horror diffuse, the
terrorists have managed to both break a previously unthinkable barrier in warfare and yet also avoid anything like a commensurate response. The micro-war we are witnessing is
designed to avert the mass outrage that followed September 11, an outrage that has obviously hurt the terrorists badly. So
they have tried a sneakier approach and, because of this, they have gotten away with one of their key objectives: to normalize
the use of biological weapons. As of now, the government has said nothing coherent about this epochal event, except to continue a war that was launched in response to a separate,
conventional attack. The terrorists have therefore won something big, and the Bush administration doesn't even seem to know how to respond. I can see why. If the White House
were to say explicitly that it believes this weapon has been used by a named enemy, there would be enormous pressure for an appropriate response. So the administration has been
confused in its public utterances, barely able to grasp what has been achieved by the enemy, seemingly unable to articulate a
credible response. It seems to me that this passivity must end soon. After all, the White House itself has now been targeted with a biological weapon! We need the president to tell us what exactly the government believes about this anthrax attack, who is behind it, what it means, and what we are going to do in
response. If we continue the current, passive strategy, we are not only sowing fear across this country. By our lassitude, we are almost inviting a far larger attack. Perhaps the
administration is waiting for some truly huge horror before taking further action. I can see the public relations reasons for this. But isn't it their duty to prevent just such an outrage by retaliating distinctly now? This need not mean nuclear weapons, but it should be separate from our current strategy
and fiercer than anything we have yet unleashed. What I'm saying is that the response to this new assault should not be
measured by how many people it has killed, but by the new and terrifying means that have been deployed. We must draw a line now, or we will have normalized barbarism for the foreseeable future.
In essence, Sullivan is advocating massive retaliation for any sort of biological attack, because otherwise US threats and its long-standing strategy for responding to a biological attack would be worthless.
Of course, this assumes the anthrax is a product of Al Qaeda or Iraq, not a home grown group. Check out the photos of the letters and tell me how likely you think an Islamic militant sent them: yahoo |
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...The letter on that link, plus the ones I've seen in the papers...NO FUCKING WAY did anyone who learned to write using Arabic script write them.