Re: War....
I got on PBW just to escape the day and return to some level of normalcy. I couldn't resist reading this posting, however. It has to be the largest number of Posts in a single day on a single topic on Shrapnel.
Someone on TV compared this to Pearl Harbor. It is an inciting event, but much bigger than that. Pearl Harbor was a vicious attack on our military at an off-mainland base. 2,300 died. We anticipated we would eventually be at war with Japan, we just wanted to stay out of it as long as possible. What happened today was magnitudes larger. It was a direct attack on civilians on our mainland. Probably in large excess of 23,000 died. We have been engaged in diplomacy with various nations plagued by terrorism, just wanting to remain distanced. In both cases, they awoke a great sleeping beast.
As a physician, I agree with Hadrian and Lazarus. I do not want to be alarmist but this may only be a prelude of things to come. The perpetrators of this trajedy are probably also able to instigate biological terrorism. This is an indiscriminate killer of many more, even those of us seeming protected in the heartland of America. The military is prepared to defend themselves against such a threat, yet there is no good defense nor adequate preparedness among the civilian population. The weapons of choice would be anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulism, E coli, salmonella, cholera, and Ebola. The mechanisms to deliver it to the population are varied: aerosolized sprays, contaminated water, tainted food, infected human carriers. By the time it is recognized, the population will be widely infected and many dead.
May the dead and those family members who have lost or are missing loved ones find some peace in the face of this unprecedented trajedy. May God strengthen and repair our broken spirit. It is to all Americans affected by this disaster that I dedicate my signature:
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The Good Doc
"Henceforth I spread confident wings to space
I fear no barrier of crystal or glass;
I cleave the heavens and soar to the infinite.
And while I rise from my own globe to others
And penetrate even further through the eternal field,
That which others saw from afar, I leave far behind me."
-Giordano Bruno
"On the Infinite Universe and Worlds," 1584
__________________
The Good Doc
Henceforth I spread confident wings to space
I fear no barrier of crystal or glass;
I cleave the heavens and soar to the infinite.
And while I rise from my own globe to others
And penetrate even further through the eternal field,
That which others saw from afar, I leave far behind me.
-Giordano Bruno
On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, 1584
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