Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
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The only circumstance that I can imagine where we would initiate military operations would be if there was an attack on our homeland. Even then, we'd have to be very certain who it was that was doing the attacking before we'd send our military out to gain retribution.
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I respectfully agree, but wonder if we share the same definition of
attack on our homeland.
On any given day some part of the US is under attack. It can by blatantly obvious (e.g., Pearl Harbor, 9/11) or may be much more subtle (e.g., cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure or government systems). It can be an operation-in-plan but not fully executed.
The fact that CNN doesn't issue a news flash about it doesn't mean it's not happening, and very dedicated people defend us 24/7 on these fronts, and this defense needs to be exceptionally proactive rather than reactive, or the quantum of harm caused to US can get way out of hand. As technology has increased, so have the ways we have become more vulnerable and susceptible to attacks never considered or understood a decade or two ago. I expect the federal government to be on guard and responsive - proactively and reactively if too late to prevent.
Unfortunately, the Presidential election gets all the hype. I agree the level of inattentiveness is dumbfounding, especially regarding the House candidates who (during non-Presidential election years) run oftentimes unopposed, or no more than 20% of the electorate bothers to make the journey to the Polls.
I wonder how many people even know who their Representative in the US Congress is, on what committees the congressperson sits, what the person's voting records IN THE COMMITTEES is, have ever bothered to witness in person or via C-SPAN any of the committee meetings just to see whether the congressperson shows up at all or does anything while present?
The issues should not be somethings that hare just dusted off at Presidential election time and sound-bit to death, but actually followed. Anything less is really a measure of national apathy and "
just let someone else worry about it - I'm too busy."
Maybe this will be the election that will get folks rattled enough to pay attention to Congress - who controls the money, the laws actually made, the committees who are supposed to fulfill an oversight role, and do something other than pat each other on the back.