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A call to arms?





From Jack Beatty oer at The Atlantic Unbound: The Expulsion From the Magic Kingdom



If the next attack is a question, as vice president Dick Cheney has said, of "when" instead of "if," then shouldn't we do everything we can to prevent it? If we are attacked again, will we still tolerate misallocation of resources, bureaucratic infighting, and tax cuts for 232 dead rich people in New Jersey, while vital infrastructure from bridges to tunnels to reservoirs goes undefended and Russian scientists carrying nuclear secrets go uncompensated? Will Norm Mineta, the Transportation Secretary, then be fired for idiocy if he repeats what he said after September 11--that airport screeners will treat an eighty-year-old woman from Short Hills, New Jersey, with no less vigilance than they would an itinerant holy warrior from Saudi Arabia? If a plane is used in another attack, will we then reconceive air travel for an age when the commercial airliner is a potential cruise missile? Will we still leave our southern borders porous and still continue to police our 4,000-mile northern border with only 350 agents? If Disneyland is irradiated by a dirty bomb, one of the scenarios Bill Keller throws out to trouble sleep--how will we then regard the symbolism of President Bush's post 9/11 advice to take the kids there? The President almost certainly won't repeat the schizoid message he gave to the nation in September--go to Disneyland but be aware that it may also be a terrorist destination--should "if" turn to "when."

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