HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
By Brooks A. Mick, M.D.
Dec. 5, 2006 "We are about to transship. I feel exhilarated. Puppet masters--the free men are coming to kill you! Death and Destruction!" --The last words of "Puppet Masters." That is one of my favorite Heinlein quotations, though seldom cited by any other fan. “Puppet Masters” was about an invasion of aliens from Titan, aliens who could latch onto humans’ nervous system and control their behavior. It was written around the time of the early Cold War and was an allegory about communism, I suspect. But Heinlein understood human nature as well as anybody I know or have ever heard of. His insights into human behavior apply to the current day’s situation also. One notes the many miscalculations and mistakes in the fight against the Titans. Some were military miscalculations, some were made because of insufficient information, some were made because of what we now call political correctness, but all were errors on the side of TOO LITTLE VIOLENCE when violence was absolutely necessary. It was only in hindsight that many of the mistakes were recognized. Another quote I like is from a self-defense instructor, Tom Larkin: "Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is...It's the only answer." When the Titans first landed, relatively little violence would have been needed to wipe them out and many lives would have been saved. Later, it took major military operations and many dead soldiers (AND A LOT OF LUCK a la the Orwell "War of the Worlds" scenario) to stop them. But by then, many humans had died or been irreparably harmed. The same thing happened with WW2, for example. Hitler might have been prevented from launching WW2 by some firmness on the part of the rest of Europe when he wanted "just the Sudetenland." But no, Chamberlain et al wimped out and thus emboldened Hitler and the Nazis. And perhaps emboldened, by proxy, the Japanese, who thought western civilization was ripe for aggression. One notes that the great Chinese general, Sun Tzu, said “When you wish the enemy to attack, appear weak.” Another quote worth remembering. Same thing happening with the terrorists, I am afraid. With the election of the Democrats (and its signalling of the lack of understanding and lack of patience and lack of fighting spirit of the US citizens) the terrorists have become emboldened. Notice the increased anti-Israeli rhetoric, the increased attempts for Syria to retake Lebanon (after our early militancy had convinced them to abandon Lebanon or face what Saddam had faced), the increased intransigence of Iran in working toward nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles (those folks who discount the rogue nations' current threat are irrationally believing that Iran and N. Korea won't have better missiles in the future!--why would they think that weapons progress would miraculously stagnate?), and the Muslim militancy ramping up in Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, Cyprus, Serbia, the Sudan, and elsewhere. There are credible reports of Muslim extremists in Venezuela, using that country to get documents to enter the USA. Many of the countries now ignoring the terrorist threat are feeling safe and secure mainly because the terrorists are simply using them as transportation junctions, not currently wreaking havoc by bomb attacks, etc. A N. Korean weapons system was just captured in Cyprus, and it included air defense missiles, mobile launchers, etc. It was on its way to Syria. The attempt to drive the first stake into the vampire's heart in Iraq was reasonable. It showed definite signs of success, as Syria pulled out of Lebanon, as Muammar Khadafi gave up his own weapons development program, etc. But as the media ratcheted up their body-count reporting, as the Democrats ratcheted up their obstruction of anti-terrorist and counter-terrorist measures, as the left-wing activist court system began handing down bizarre rulings about the Patriot Act and NSA programs to spy on terrorists, the terrorists realized that all they had to do was keep on setting off some bombs and wait until the anti-Bush propaganda machine killed American resolve. Hey, it worked before! But sooner or later, the danger will become apparent, one can hope, to enough people that sufficient violence will be applied to the Muslim fanatic world. But it will take much more violence, and many more people will die than if we had continued with efforts to stop the terrorist threat now. I like that Heinlein quote because it gives HOPE! ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: Physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
