Chuck,
I'd agree with you that putting up a wall around America, instituting an
Alert System, passing the Patriot Act, fingerprinting all non-Citizens, etc.
would be a waste of time...*IF* we didn't also have a policy of going into
the countries in the Middle East and tossing out the governments that
support the terrorists.

That plan works for me. What is *your* plan?



"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
What prompted all the security against the sharks? Had there been a
massive
shark attack in that pool before? Had other sharks threatened to enter
the
same pool? Did we catch sharks that had entered the pool, but detained
them
before they did some damage? Were the sharks sent to the pool by other
countries?

Some sick, twisted, criminal ******* once threw a shark into the pool. A
single, tragic incident in the entire history of the fictional little
town. The
city fathers used the incident as an excuse to extend police powers into
all
sorts of areas not particularly related to securing the pool. The city
government bloated to unheard of proportions, and the shark attack was
cited as
the reason. The little city even began annexing a number of other
communities
so that the other areas could be more effectively policed.

In the end, somebody threw a rattlesnake instead of a shark.

There well may be additional attacks. It is the nature of terrorists to
strike
where they are unexpected- to cut people down during
innocent, routine, daily activities. Until we
become a total police state, with everybody watched absolutely all the
time, we
remain vulnerable to attacks from quarters we would currently consider low
risk. When we do become a total police state, the terrorists will have
carried
the day- they will have caused America, as we know it, to self-destruct.

If and when the criminal *******s stirke again, it will be where we least
expect it- not where we are most prepared. Unless, of course, the
preparations
are ineffective window dressing. The only thing more frightening than
being
attacked from somewhere you didn't expect it would be a highly successsful
attack through the one or two areas where the public had been lulled into
believing we were well prepared.