Test Fire

So if you can take a man's life
for the thoughts that's in his head
Then sit back in that chair
and think it over judge one more time

--Johnny 99, Bruce Springsteen

Take a ride in the sky

On our ship fantasize
All your dreams will come true miles away
--Fantasize, Earth, Wind and Fire

In my country, we have a name
for a warrior with the vision to be just
and the courage to show mercy.
We call him... The Cid!
--El Cid (1961)

__________________

[Continuation of yesterday's "The Sting"]

Let's consider the threat, or the illusion of threat, which has been hanging over our soldier's heads for the last decade. It is unquantifiable, based upon innuendo and dismissive of the intelligence concept that evaluates a threat by analyzing both intent and capability.

Obviously El Khalid had the intention, but he lacked even a whiff of any capability to carry out his bombing fantasy. This "terrorist" lacked even the basic common sense to test fire or to strip his weapon to examine its condition. If he cannot do that, his capabilities are precisely squat.

Let's go further: If a Qaeda is a threat and a mushroom cloud looms on the horizon, then why haven't any commercial-grade explosives been smuggled into The Homeland ™ or been confiscated by Homeland Security of the Federal Bureau of Investigations? Ranger does not accept the paltry home-made, gram weight explosives found on would-be Shoe-Bomber Reid or would-be Underwear Bomber Abdulmutallab as posing an existential threat to the U.S.

The capability has not been proven. Ask the question while pondering two wars, countless U.S. casualties and trillions of dollars spent on internal security. The governmental response is disproportionate to the threat. The losers that we prosecute are not Skorzeny commandos, as we are being led to believe.

Now consider the bombs, Predator missiles and all of the people we kill trying to eliminate a threat which appears trumped up, at best. Billions of dollars wasted, goodwill lost and people killed worldwide for an unproven threat.

Khalid could not even procure a handgun in Washington, D.C., a city awash in firearms for local thugs -- so what does this tell you? Where is the supposed Gun Show loophole which allows anyone to buy a gun? This does not appear to be the case when Khalid had to buy his MAC 10 from a government shill. Besides being incompetent, he was delusional or just plain stupid, or a combination thereof.

America needs to rethink the entire Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) in a dispassionate and realistic manner. Perhaps it can pull out of its nosedive before hitting the bottom of the rabbit hole.