Posted on 05/16/2002 9:37:11 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Osama bin Laden accomplished a great deal with his 9.11 attack in 2001. His vicious surprise attack not only destroyed the Twin Towers and damaged the Pentagon at great loss of life, but he succeeded in slowing the US economy to a crawl. And he bragged about it!
The government recently reported that the unemployment rate shot up to its highest level in more than a seven and a half-year period. More than 134,000 jobs disappeared, but I don't need the government to tell me about economic indicators. I have my own.
I have a friend in Montana who has run a successful barbecue operation during the summer and fall months. He's had his hands full getting any insurance company to issue a standard liability policy. The insurance industry took a big hit. Now they are risk aversive.
I have a friend who is a top financial consultant with a leading brokerage firm where they have removed the office water coolers to save a few dollars. Another friend watched his business of twenty years go belly-up in part because he couldn't get his mail delivered in Washington, DC for weeks after the Anthrax scare.
The public relations industry, always a bellwether for business and industry, is experiencing serious losses as clients of every description hold back on promoting products and issues.
Finally, there are the new hours at Tiffany's in New York City. It used to be the store closed at 5PM with one night open until 7PM. Now Tiffany's is open every night until 7PM.
Americans are waiting for the next 9.11. There are lots of good reasons to think it is coming. National security is a joke. In the months since 9.11, the morons in the Immigration and Naturalization Service have issued more than 50,000 visas to people coming into the United States from nations identified as sponsors of terror. Getting into the US from either Canada or Mexico is just too easy.
On a recent "Sixty Minutes", they aired a segment that described how Canada, which shares the longest border with the US, has in effect no immigration policy whatever. This allows anyone to show up in Canada without a visa or any other documentation, claim refugee status, and immediately begin to receive welfare checks and many other generous benefits. Any terrorist can cross the border into the US with no more than a wave of the hand.
There are major concentrations of Muslims in places such as Jersey City and Paterson in New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan. There are suspected Islamic terrorist cells in Virginia and other States. The estimates of how many Arab-Americans there are in the US range from 2.8 million to the claim of six million by Muslim organizations. Okay, not all Muslims are al Qaeda, but which ones are and which are not? And which ones are loyal to the US first?
The Islamic schools to which some send their children are inculcating the same anti-Israel, anti-Semitic views that have the entire Middle East locked into the insane notion that tiny Israel must be destroyed. On another "Sixty Minutes" segment, interviews with some of these children revealed they think that suicide-murderers are "martyrs" and they would do the same thing if asked. Little wonder Muslim-Americans are looked upon these days with suspicion.
From a news item posted May 11th, "Now for the hard truth," CIA Deputy Director for Operation James Pavitt said. "Despite the best efforts of so much of the world, the next terrorist attack -- it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. The threat that we face today from global terrorism is real, it's immediate, and it is unlike any other we have faced before. I say this from 30 years of experience in an intelligence function."
The anticipation of the next act of terrorism is thwarting an economic rebound. Every day, a million separate decisions not to make an investment, undertake an expansion or take a trip are occurring. Wall Street has seen the Dow Jones dip below 10,000. If bin Laden is alive, he is surely celebrating. Even if he is dead, his minions are no doubt plotting yet another assault upon this nation.
Americans are scared and scared people make bad choices. We need to gird up our courage and our determination to defeat the worldwide Islamic Jihad. One solution-the best one--is to take the fight directly to the enemy. This is why we went to Afghanistan and this is why we must do the same with Iraq.
Americans, who want everything over and done in hurry, would be wise to learn the lessons of history. After the defeat of Japan in WWII, an effort of four years, we managed that nation's affairs for seven years in order to effect the changes from which a modern Japan emerged. We must be prepared to do that in Iraq and to bring about similar change throughout the Middle East.
With 1.3 billion adherents worldwide and an estimated 10% to 15% (100 to 150 million) support the Islamic Jihad, this war on Western civilization, on the modern world, poses a great danger to the future of freedom and progress. It must be defeated.
Alan Caruba is the author of "A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam", available from www.anxietycenter.com, where his weekly column, "Warning Signs", is posted.
Alan Caruba
At what time in the future will you concede that you are wrong?
Or do you get to say the sky will be falling, pretty much forever?
I am only refering to my personal experience. Fact is these unemployement numbers are about to get bigger as the most peoples severance dries up. They will start claiming unemployement (which only last so long as well)
Even the down turn in the early ninties (its the economy stupid era) I didn't know any people personally that got the axe. Today, I know of about nine people that had decent jobs last year with none now. Most have never been out of work and have families. The most recent got laid off yesterday at teleglobe.
And I'll add that the recent graduating crop is gonna have a real hard time getting in the work stream at this time.
I agree with you, if you are only talking in terms of months. I speculate that even as things pick up, unemployment will climb until September.
Then by all accounts you must be less than 8 years old. After you grow up and live awhile you'll see that recessions go in cycles. Once you get to high school you could even take an economics class. You should look forward to it. It will help show how the liberals lie.
Most econimists I know and I know a few, agree that things are cyclical, which I also stated in an above post. So your not bringing anything new to this conversation.
So you think things are just peachy? Know anybody out of work?
Well, since I was rude to you and you weren't to me I feel a bit obligated to answer back seriously. Peachy? No, but it is one of the lightest recessions. Carter's was much worse and Nixon had to cap prices. Since the lowest unemployment was 3.9% and we are at 6.0% now that doesn't leave much wiggle room to go between. My father has had his doctorate in economics and taught for 30 years so I ask his advice on these things (Though he also said if you have 10 economists in a room you can probably find 11 opinions on any subject). Know anyone out of work? No, actually. I'm in western Colorado and I guess we are a bit more diversified. Sorry, about your situation but I just don't think it is even close to the worst I've ever seen.
The best thing for the economy is if Pres. Bush would do more to get the oil producers to produce more. I think he can, but I'm not sure he will.
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