Do you think that we, as a nation, can survive another attack from Islamic extremists?

This nation has had several attacks and conflicts which were devastating to the people of the time.

* The American Revolution ... the need to have one

* The War of 1812 ... or Britain 2nd bite at the apple, and US invasion of Canada

* The American Civil War, or War between the States

* Remember the Alamo, US war with Mexico

* Pearl Harbor and various other World War experiences, including Nazi saboteours off-loaded by submarine with mission of blowing up some sky scrapers

* During the Cold War, there was the ever present risk of a nuclear confrontation, that would lead ultimately to a nuclear winter

There's also been some natural disaster type scares.

An asteroid, bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, came closer to us than the Moon, a very narrow scrape in astronomical terms, and we did not see it until after it had gone past. There's 200 of these rocks playing Russian Roulette with our planet ... ie. big enough to make us extinct if it hits, and they do cross Earth orbit. Today we have the scientific capability to protect our planet, but we do not have the political will. The politicians think this is science fiction, so they too are contaminated by a kind of conspiracy theorizing, that could become the death of our civilization.

We are now in a religious war, which is probably the worst kind to have.

I expect this war could easily last entire 21st century, longer than the 100 years war, the Cold War, the religious wars of middle ages of Europe.

It scares me to think that the freedoms of America will be eroded over time in the name of security, then when the war is over, there will be no one alive who remembers the lost freedoms, and battles to get them reinstated.

Here is link to full text of (public portion of) National Intelligence Report released 2007 July-17 Tuesday.

http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemerge...

Basically the USA has 16 separate spy agencies, plus FBI and various related. They all concur.

* Al-Qaida HQ in Tribal Areas of Pakistan, and

* Al Qaida in Iraq

may strike the USA with Weapons of Mass Destruction in the next few years.

Lebanese Hezbollah also may attack USA.

Other threats are out there.

There are suspicions that the timing of the release of some information is intended to influence the next election & I have been struggling to figure out if there was an attack on the eve of an election, like they did in Madrid Spain, would it cause the election results to go a different way than they would otherwise, and would this help or hurt the enemy.

There's also how vulnerable we really are, with Border Security, like more cargos delivered at sea ports than we have the budget to inspect. Remember the case of cargo container opened at random to find inside there an apartment containing a terror cell with all they needed to do lots of trouble.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) conducts various investigations on behalf of Congress, and they just did one into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and found that their actions to protect the nation from terrorists building a variety of threats here inside the USA was a bit of a joke.

There is a one page summary of their investigation here.

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071038thi...

C-Span often shows gavel to gavel hearings where stuff like this is presented to Congress ... check out the schedule, maybe you can see that. But if not, here is the full report

GAO-07-1038T, July 12.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?gao-07...

You can go to the GAO web site & sign up for e-mail that will let you know every time a GOA investigation is completed with reports like this available to the general public. Spoiler Warning ... it is extremely scary not only the stuff they find out, but that it takes Congress decades to fix the stuff.

In 2006 there was a plane flight with a group of Islamic Imams (like priests) who were behaving in a manner that some airline passengers thought was suspicious or odd. So under the rule of thumb "See something suspicious, report it" they reported it. The airline made the Imams leave the plane. They sued the airline and the "John Doe" passengers who had reported them.

In a law suit, the people doing the reporting, of what they honestly thought was suspicious, they can lose everything, all their assets, homes, cars, bank accounts. Congress is now debating putting a whistle blower protection in place for people who report what they think is suspicious.

The Republicans are for this, the Democrats against.

I do not understand all the arguements each way, but recognize this is like dynamite.

If anyone can report anyone & not get in trouble for false reports, that can hurt our society, it will invite a rise in public profiling by racists.

If people are afraid to report stuff, because they can get sued if the people they report are really innocent, that also will hurt our nation's defenses.

If you remember what we learned from Katrina, and other recent natural disasters, you know that the feds only come in after the locals and state do an SOS, so the first line of defense is the local and state governments. To this end, the National Governor's Association (NGA) engages in mutual education regarding threats and how best to deal with them.

http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga

I suggest that there is a wealth of education here.

Terrorist attacks are not the only threats.

Bird Flu Pandemic

Global Warming

Wild Fires

Gas prices

Computer Security Breaches

Pedophiles

http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.6398ca...

If you think or expect the U.S. as a nation to crumble if another terrorist attack occurs, you are sadly mistaken. It will not. And no, America and Americans have not forgotten 9/11, nor will they. Why do you think we still acknowledge December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy?" Because our nation was attacked unprovoked by Japanese. We staggered and stumbled and finally unleashed two atomic bombs on Japan for that.

Terrorists are less likely to now attack the U.S. than England, France, Germany and other European countries because their Muslim population is much greater and uncontrolled. that isn't to say that some fool won't try it, they probably will. But will we survive? Damn right we will!

We can try to prevent one and it appears as if we have been pretty successful in this endeavor so far since we haven't had an attack on US soil since, but I think it is inevitable that it will happen again. Can we survive another one, absolutely and it may take another attack to really galvanize the population into action. We in America seem to have a very short memory and sometimes that is good but in this case it could be disastrous.

Yes, we can survived another attack from a terrorist. Because it is in human trait that we go on and pick up our lives and marches on for the future.

No, Americans haven't forgot what happened in 9/11, all of us just have continued on to make the country stronger and smarter to combat terrorism.

You know what we won't survive from? We won't be able to survive another terrorist attack until there is universal health care run by the government. Why? Because many of the first responders to the 9/11 attack can not get treatment for disease that was cause by the debris. Some of them can't even get healthcare or their health insurance won't pay for their medication or hospital treatments.

Why can the congress spends billions and billions of dollars to wage war, but they can't take care of the tax payers who pay for the bill, those who sacrifice their life to defend this country after they were discharged from the military doesn't even get free health care, only for those that they got from the military.

What kind of congress are we putting in charged of our life if only those that we put in the office can get free healthcare while we tax payers can not get health care at all?

Chances are we will be attacked again. Can we as a nation survive? I am certain the US can survive another terrorist attack but it will definitely have a negative effect our national economy. This can very much lead to very negative times in our beautiful country.

America survived 2 World wars,i'm sure it will survive any attack by extremists,where-ever they come from.

Certainly,Americans have always made the grade when the pressure is on and we seem at our best when difficulties unite us as a single nation.

If we can survive Pres. Bush we can survive anything!!!

I sure didnt forget

we have a long way to go before we rival baghdad.