Former Homeland chief Ridge says terror war will last decades

[sabra]

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/14877499.htm

Former Homeland chief Ridge says terror war will last decades
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said the war on terror is likely to last for generations, much like the Cold war.

"For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday during a panel discussion in Pittsburgh that marked the opening of a new RAND Corp. office in the city.

"I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."

Ridge was in his second term as Pennsylvania's governor when he was picked by President Bush to be the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

[dysfunctional press]

1. you can't fight a war against an emotion.

and fighting terror with terror is especially stupid.

[saigon68]

10. They want it to last for centuries

Or until every guy described by Congressman John Cooksey R-LA is dead

Rep. John Cooksey, R-La., made some astonishing remarks in the wake of the attack. "If I see someone comes in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that boy needs to be pulled over," he said.

[dysfunctional press]

14. when that kind of mentality is allowed to hold a position of power...

then it probably is about time for us to have our hats handed to us, as a nation.

[saigon68]

16. Unfortunately an even smaller brained majority

Voted for the Chimp Pea-Brain

[Skink]

2. The war for pork is only just under way.

Red states first.

[acmejack]

3. Or until every last dime has been extorted, er, wrung out of the treasury!

[still_one]

4. sorry ridge, bush will be out in 2008

[NYC]

5. Permawar.

So profitable for the few, so destructive for the many.

We need to stop the profiteers from making war decisions.

[PurityOfEssence]

8. Exactly; it'll last forever, and that's just what they want

Personal freedoms will only be abridged for the duration, but that'll be forever. It's a clash of cultures and a clash of religions, and the extremists in Islam aren't going to just quit.

The reactionaries love this: it's good for profit, it bolsters the xenophobia upon which they thrive and it--as Max Cleland put it--scares the pants off the people. Keep scaring the proles, and you can assure the continuation of the "strong hand" type of government.

It doesn't look good.

[Virginia Dare]

6. Well, that's just great...

He was preaching to the choir, and I'm sure the people at RAND gave that little speech a rousing applause. Big government contracts coming your way for DECADES!!!! Yippeee!!


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_458739.html

Homeland security -- a major portion of RAND's business -- is a primary topic for speakers participating in Wednesday's program to open the office.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Yep, the Greek myth of the creature whose one head is cut off

and two grow in its place. The perpetual war.

[NYC]

13. Hydra.

The Hydra had the body of a serpent and many heads (the number of heads deviates from five up to one hundred there are many versions but generally nine is accepted as standard), of which one could never be harmed by any weapon, and if any of the other heads were severed another would grow in its place (in some versions two would grow). Also the stench from the Hydra's breath was enough to kill man or beast (in other versions it was a deadly venom). When it emerged from the swamp it would attack herds of cattle and local villagers, devouring them with its numerous heads. It totally terrorized the vicinity for many years.



http://pantheon.org/articles/h/hydra.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Gotta milk that cash cow

for as long as possible.

[newspeak]

11. after 9/11, instead of treating it as criminal

the neo-cons had a chance for their grand vision of war and empire--they paid the finest PR firms to sell the duped public on "the War on Terror." And with enough fear and pseudo patriotism, they sold the majority of the public on that war. The war on terror will be for decades until we can make sure that there's not one shred of paper left of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The war on terror will be for decades until our mega corporations control every part of the world--you know, the New (old) World Order. And, because the terrorists hate us for our freedoms, then we'll just remove them, so y'all can be safe. The war on terror will be for decades or until there is no more USA since we will have bankrupted you fighting the great fight on the war on terror. And, since we will continue to call various countries that won't tow are corporate line, enemies, we will pre-emptively attack, kill their civilians and create more terrorists--so our great-great grandchildren can fight the glorious war on terror.

[apnu]

12. Like the war on Drugs, this too will fail.

And like the War on Drugs, will cost untold amounts of wasted tax payer money, ruin millions of lives, and generally bum everybody out.

[MagickMuffin]

17. Exactly,

Some people don't realize with the War on Drugs, that that was the first big test of our Bill of Rights being violated.

Fourth Amendment: Poof, no longer important, because someone could have drugs, so search and seizure no longer needed to provide citizens against unwarranted harassment.

The Feds could take away your homes, cars, children. Not many people were concerned back then. The mentality was "I don't do drugs so that doesn't concern me"

But now with the War on Terror, and the Bill of Rights once again being attacked, people are waking up.

The War on Drugs was the first attempt (the runner up) to curb our freedoms and gave the Feds leverage at just how far the citizens are willing to give up certain freedoms.

[superconnected]

15. I've read several times where bush is creating countless terrorists

for each one he kills.

So apparen't he's the big problem, not the terrorists.

[KansDem]

18. Just like the "war on communism"

It lasted for decades...for generations.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the military-industrial complex needed another boogieman. They found one in "terrorism." I don't think it coincidental that end of Communism in 1989 and the beginning of Terrorism (1993*) both occurred under George H W Bush, and the worst terrorist attack in our history occurred under his son, George W Bush.

Gotta look out for the "haves" and "have mores"

________
*planning for the 1993 WTC bombing actually began in 1992

[newspeak]

19. yep, it's time to watch

Canadian Bacon again. Great spoof about the military-industrial complex.

[Divernan]

20. Ridge is profiteering on this as a "consultant"

Just like his fellow schmuck, Joe Albaugh, Bush's former campaign manager whom Bush put "in charge of" FEMA with the brief to close it down. He was well on his way to doing so when 9/11 occurred. Then when Albaugh couldn't be a cabinet level player, cause FEMA was folded in to Homeland Security, he put that incompentent hack Brown in charge and went off to the high-paid world of terrorism consulting. So is Ridge hard at work advising on coordinating the color of duct tape with the alerts?

[saigon68]

21. He has the Snout of his Company DEEP in the Public Trough

The taxpayers meanwhile, are supporting his excessive corpulent lifestyle

[ixion]

22. always the intention

they've dragged the so-called War on Drugs out for more than 20 years...the WoD's Big Evil Brother, the WoT, is scheduled to last centuries, if the neocon fascists have anything to do with it. :grr:

[IndianaGreen]

23. I won't be part of this phony war on terra

The Cold War was phony enough for me!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Sure you will.

The part you'll be playing is "The Example."

[Terran1212]

24. You can't ever win this kind of war; but Big Business can profit from it

They know very well that continually bombing and killing, occupying and imprisoning Arabs will do nothing but create more terror.

But it's so damn profitable -- they just can't stop.

[samsingh]

26. wouldn't this mean that they are admitting that repugs

are doing a shitty job fighting against terror. WWII only lasted 6 years!

[samsingh]

27. kind of makes you think that the repugs are happy at war

they can lie, cheat, and destroy while using patriatism to hide their corruption.

and the people buy it - while actually not getting anything but validation for their own hatred.