Author's comments - May 5, 2008.
In the summer of 1999, I wrote the following chapter 15 for my book.
At the time, the publisher decided that the subject of international terrorism
was not relevant and would not include this chapter in the final edition of the
book. Unfortunately, the events of September 11, 2001, proved him wrong!
As you will learn as you read the following chapter, I believed at the
time I wrote the book that the West was setting itself up for certain acts of
international terrorism. Regrettably, Osama bin Laden fulfilled my
prediction. However, there was no way that anybody could have predicted
the method and magnitude of the terrorist attacks that occurred against New York
and Washington, D.C. in 2001. Of course, it has not been forgotten that Ramzi
Yousef organized the bombing of the World Trade Center twin towers in Lower
Manhattan on February 26, 1993.
To this day, after almost seven years of constant terrorist alerts in the
U.S., Osama bin Laden is still at large and exerting his form of terrorism
around the world. He can send a $5 videotape to an Arab TV station and
cause the U.S. to spend millions of dollars a day fighting an illusive
adversary!
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'PLANE TRUTH' - Chapter 15 in the original manuscript, written in 1999.
"Inviting Terrorism."
The law of the jungle works well in the jungle. It obeys the laws of natural selection and Nature stays in a healthy balance.
With the glaring exception of man, few animals attack the same species.
Men are particularly aggressive, but women are not totally
excluded. The aggressive behavior of man manifests itself in many ways, so let’s review a few. I need to make an
important point.
War: Historically, war has been between two trained armies and the conditions of war are well defined. The sides
are more or less equally balanced and there is always collateral damage and loss of civilian life. World War II is a classical
example and the Korean War a smaller version thereof.
Guerrilla War: Guerrilla war is usually associated with two warring countries with one side more powerful than
the other. The Vietnam War was a typical case. The North Vietnamese knew they had little chance of winning a war
against America with its massive war chest and advanced technology.
The North Vietnamese, we need not be reminded, won that guerrilla war of attrition against the French with the final battle at Dien Bien Phu, and
against the Americans when Saigon
fell on April 30, 1974.
Cold War: The Cold War was won essentially by America against the USSR by two distinct techniques with no
obvious loss of life. The fact that both sides had enough nuclear bombs to completely annihilate each other kept the
balance of power equal and dangerous. The technique was called, MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. The USSR lost
as the cost of the cold war brought the country to economic ruin. America ran up six trillion dollars of debt but can
probably pay this down over twenty years if Congress develops the courage or the Americans demand it. The rules were
clear.
Civil Wars, Religious Wars, Murder, Domestic Violence, Road Rage: We are all very familiar with these
acts of violence as they occur on a daily basis. The wars followed by the
mainstream media include the never ending conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Northern Irish fiasco, the many wars in Africa, the Indian and Pakistan
religious war and others of less interest to the press.
Economic War: The economic war between nations is a never-ending process, which may actually have great
benefits to society over the long term. The economic wars have a tendency to make the process of exchanging goods and
services more efficient. However, when the balance of trade swings too far in favor of one nation, serious one-sided
conflicts can escalate to a more violent phase. Japan has had a massive trade imbalance with the USA for decades. By
1999 the trade balance reached almost unsustainable levels. Yet with the
Japanese holding two trillion dollars of the US National Debt there is precious little the US can do. The Japanese could just buy Euros. The United States, with a
population of 278 million, in a world with a population of 6 billion, consumes over one third of the world’s resources
every day. That is enough to make other less fortunate people less than happy with their prospects. To avoid being called
biased, I must point out that Americans work harder and more efficiently than most other societies and provide huge
volumes of food and other commodities to the world.
Terrorism: There is little doubt that the people on Pan Am 103 felt terror in their hearts as the huge
Boeing 747 broke into pieces at 550 MPH over Lockerbie. But was it terrorism?
The very word “terrorism” has a unique concept in the English language as it usually brings visions of personal fear
of death or serious injury. It’s personal. War, on the other hand, is a vague term where others get hurt or killed, while the
individual is not threatened. During the Vietnam War some young Americans were being slaughtered on the battlefield
while others back home were going dancing on a Saturday night. Movies of war are very popular, Rambo movies sell well
and the most popular video games involve some form of violence. Yet when the lights go out at the movie theatre, or the
TV is shut off, those experiencing the violence, can sleep peacefully knowing that tomorrow will be just another day.
In my evaluation of events, if the Iranians, Syrians, Palestinians or Libyans did, in fact, bomb Pan Am 103
it was not terrorism. It was guerrilla warfare.
The four potential adversaries had major grievances, which they blamed for the most part on Israel and America
for its staunch and very biased economic and military support. The Iranians could have been avenging the downing of the
Airbus in the Gulf, the Syrians are still smarting over losing the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day war, the Libyans were
incensed by the American bombing of Tripoli; and the Palestinian situation needs no further explanation. The leaders of
these countries knew from experience that to tackle Israel or the USA in a head-on confrontation was suicidal. The only
technique to win the war was by adopting guerrilla tactics. The bombing of buildings like the New York World Trade
Center in 1993, and the bombing of airplanes in the 1980's, were surgical attacks designed to put fear into the public and hence
force the Arab
grievances to be addressed. You may say that it is unfair. It attacks innocent people going about their daily business. But isn’t the
killing of innocent people just collateral damage?
Do not be deluded by words. The so-called “Terrorism” today is Guerrilla War!
Future Wars That Might Effect You: When Britain and the USA decided to become involved with the civil
war in Kosovo they made a huge mistake. No-one in Britain or the USA could have identified Kosovo on a world map if
their life depended on it. Now their lives may some day be touched by the aggressive act of bombing Serbia
- the city of Belgrade in
particular. The US army has a policy of attacking countries without declaring war and, in the case of Kosovo, violating the
U.S. Constitution by carrying on the bombing without Congressional approval. A courageous congressman from Texas,
Republican Ron Paul, filed a lawsuit to try and rectify the actions of the reckless Clinton Administration. The military is
also very well aware that if one airman or soldier comes home in a body bag, the public will turn against the action. It is
OK to go to war as long as none of our guys get killed. If civilians on the other side are killed it’s just like the video games;
turn off the TV and it goes away.
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was equally adamant he was on God’s side and championed the war
in Kosovo, which he
called a NATO war and which was in fact carried out by the US military in the Pentagon. How do we know this? The US was
directing its bombers and accidentally, or otherwise, targeted and hit the Chinese embassy. I lost count of the number of
times Blair stated that, “We won. He lost!” I’m not sure who he means by “we” since fewer British planes flew on
bombing runs against the sovereign nation of Serbia than the American planes. The British always pride themselves as
“being fair” and in many cases brought back the bombs because they could not see the targets. The American stealth
bombers had the capability to bomb under any conditions. There is little doubt that the Serbs lost. Months after the
bombing stopped, the Serbs were concerned about being able to face the winter of 1999 with their towns destroyed. But
did Blair win? The Americans are telling Blair to pay for the reconstruction of the Balkans so the British taxpayer did not
win. What if a few Serbs decide to retaliate the only way they know ----- guerrilla warfare. How safe are you? Turning
off the TV might not be good enough to avoid a bomb in your apartment block. In September 1999, 300 people have
died by bombs in three Russian apartment blocks. Guerrilla warriors from Chechnya were probably responsible for the
terror! So, did Tony win? We will have to wait and see; he may have another IRA on his hands. Between 500 and 5,000
civilian Serbs, Kosovars, Albanians and others lost their lives and we shall never know how many died in the cold of the
winter of 1999. Some millennium celebration for the Balkan people!
If possible, place yourself in the shoes of a Serbian whose life has been tough under the elected but dictatorial
leader, Slobodan Milosovich, and reflect on the fact that his
family was killed by an American smart cluster
bomb. He cannot understand why you have
killed his family, reduced his town to rubble, cut
off the power and water and polluted the farm land
with carbon fiber bombs used to cut off the
electricity to the entire town of Belgrade.
This guy now has nothing else to lose and he can
readily join a "guerilla warfare" group
financed by the Russian Mafia to take
revenge. Furthermore, let us assume the
group knows a Russian scientist who left Russia
for not being paid and now works for Saddam Hussein
in his biological and germ warfare operation.
This guy is even more upset by the fact that his
military was unable to defend Belgrade by virtue of the fact that it
was bombed with very sophisticated weapons from stealth fighters from 35,000 feet; two high for the WWII anti-aircraft
weapons operated by the Serbian army. How can he fight back?
What about all of the other countries that oppose Western ideals and have just witnessed what could happen to
them should they exert their desires to confront the USA and any of its allies? North Korea is a case in point. It has the
technology to deliver a missile to the West Coast of the USA. China can certainly reach the USA. On the other hand,
germ warfare could be introduced into the USA and Europe so easily it’s scary. A small bottle of a germ could easily be
smuggled in across the Canadian or Mexican border; Europe would be even easier. A small bottle of these germs
surreptitiously introduced into the New York water system could wipe out millions of people in a very short time. A very
sobering thought.
The Serbian war has made the world a more dangerous place than the Cold War for the public at large. Tyler
Marshall of the Los Angles Times Service wrote an article, which I picked up in the IHT on September 28, 1999 entitled
“Russia, China and India: Do Close Ties Bode U.S. Ill? I will quote a little of the article to make my point.
I quote, “U.S. specialists in international affairs are closely monitoring signs of increased cooperation between
Russia, China and India, along with a growing sense in all three countries, especially after NATO’s (sic USA’s) bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, that U.S. power must somehow be checked.
“Although agreeing that the three nations are far from coalescing into a Eurasian anti-NATO axis, the analysts
remain concerned about a potentially grave threat; an alliance that would bring together about 2.5 billion people,
formidable military might and a vast stock of nuclear weapons, all held together by the goal of countering American global
dominance! “
What the western world urgently requires are some of the greatest leaders the world has ever experienced.
They are out there and they must be found. The USA presidential elections are as
an important event as any in the
past fifty years and yet Americans, basking in wealth, ignore the challenges that lie ahead.
Over the last century, we have seen charismatic characters such as Hitler convince an entire population to go to
war. We have seen Milosovich create a civil war, now known as ethnic cleansing. We have even witnessed a civil war in
the Congo which has wiped out 2.5 million innocent civilians. It will come as no surprise if some individual instigates a
guerrilla attack on a Western country with or without the support of a rogue state. Such individuals as Oshama bin Laden
will be capable of convincing even intelligent people to conduct acts of terrible destruction with either conventional
weapons, biological weapons or other means, to cause massive disruptions to civilian life. Governments around the
world need to recognize that these peoples’ grievances are real and need to be
addressed.