Today
It’s been a long day, and I don’t have to deal with what is going on in Manhattan.
I had a theory, a few years ago, that the CIA would become the next wing of the military. The Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, reserves… and the CIA. Why? Because, as many geeks have learned, we live in an Information Age.
A programmer can bring business across the world to its knees with well written code. A cracker can break into computers containing top secret materials.
Anyone can buy and control a Lego Mindstorms robot that contains more complex instructions than Univac, Multivac and the big iron of old. The intelligence community will now find itself being integrated into the military to fight Chinese hackers and to spy on Internet communications.
It’s coming. The actions taken today are probably the last straw — the US will begin to take information exchange seriously (do any of us have any doubt that threats were made — and ignored — via the net?).
As for the attack today… what can I say about that? I can only say that I’m not jumping to conclusions. I know my opinion as to who was behind it, but nothing can be said until more investigation has been made. Unfortunately, I doubt we’re going to get lucky enough to have the responsible twentysomething be pulled over because he doesn’t have a license plate…this isn’t, in my opinion, an attack against the government by a citizen. I don’t think an anti-government group would attack non-government buildings, especially ones like the WTC that symbolize the capitalist ideals that many of the right wingers agree with.
But, let’s think about it:
- We are all assuming Islamic terrorists, I’m sure. The Taliban’s been very active lately — including destroying the ancient Bhuddas and having Osama bin Laden kill their main rival, Ahmadshah Massoud — and the US was not looked upon very nicely for skipping out on the racism conference last week.
- Anti-government types. There are plenty of McVeigh wannabes out there. They are as much terrorists as the Islamic ones are.
- My most unlikely suspect: Anti-WTO forces. The US is seen as the bed of capitalism, and the WTC in New York would be a grand target for those people. However, I can’t imagine they would go as far to kill thousands upon thousands of people…
And, now, Kabul, Afghanistan is exploding. Is it the US taking revenge? Or is it the civil war, with the government forces taking revenge for Massoud and taking advantage of the destruction in the US?
Only time will tell what this has wrought.