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Well first off I shoudl say that I realize that it's impossible to prevent a 9/11 version 2. It's like preventing someone from breaking into your car - if they REALLY want to do it, they're gonna do it no matter how much money, time, and technology you throw at the car.
However, no one is saying we have to make it easy for them.
1) secure the airports, because so far they're not. People are still getting knives on planes. While TSA is tackling people for bringing nail clippers in their carryon, other passengers are walking on with 3 inch folders. We have to revamp security again, and this time we have to do it right. Train the baggage screeners so they don't miss things like knives. Have random, totally secret checks run by sending "secret fliers" through security with weapons to see if they're caught. If not, the screener goes through the entire training process again. If he misses another weapon after the retraining, he's fired.
2) Secure the other transportation areas. I wandered all over an amtrak station while waiting to pick up a friend. I even got out to the tracks. I was looking at an old steam engine that was parked on a sidetrack, but they didn't know that. For all they knew I was planting a bomb on the track to blow it up as the amtrak rolled in.
3) Secure cargo - why arent' we inspecting the cargo on incoming container ships? Sure, that'll mean longer wait times for cargo to be delivered, but it'll also mean that a terrorist can't get a semi trailer load of C4 into the country on a ship.
4) reclassify SUV's as passenger cars, not trucks. Why? Because being classified as trucks means they don't have to meet passenger car average fuel economy restrictions. Short story: We're using a crapload more gas. We're dependant on foreign sources for our fuel, which is a security risk.
5) I agree with TD on this one - get the HELL out of the other countries. We are not the world's policeman. We do not have the responsibilty or the right to homogenize the entire world so they all behave like us. That's not only horridly arrogant (which is why people hate us so much), it's also immoral. We need to concentrate on running our country, not everyone else's.
6) do NOT pull out of the UN. Instead, what say we pay our freakin' dues and then start working to make it something worthwhile? It needs to have more authority - at this point in our development as a species we need a planetary government. Without one, peace is an impossibility.
7) reinforce our military so that we can fight a sustained war without having to call up the national guard to serve for years on end as is happening now. With our new ass kicking military serving as a backdrop, put the word out that anyone who attacks us WILL be destroyed. That means if bin Laden attacks us, he will be destroyed. We will no longer get distracted by people like Saddam - we will go after the people that hurt us, and only the people that hurt us. Make it clear that response to an attack will be immediate and extremely violent. We will completely destroy any group that moves against us. HOWEVER, we will never attack any group that has not first attacked us.
8) Immediately stop all training of non-American groups. I'm tired of training people who then take their newfound knowledge and use it to attack us. No matter how much we think we could help by training someone in how to kill people, we must not do it.
9) Forbid defense contractors from selling weaponry to ANYONE but the U.S. military.
10) Cut all foreign aid. Funnel that money into paying for programs here at home.
11) Secure the damn borders. We've got hundreds of people sneaking over here from Mexico every day. How hard would it be for a terrorist to get in that way? Lock 'em down.
That of course is just a partial list.
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