Someone replied to what I wrote with a question about what security measures I would use instead of torture. So, my reply is pasted below.

Although I thought this was just a debate about the use of torture, I will happily address my beliefs on how to improve the security of our nation. Before I go into it, I would just like to say that we are addressing torture as if it is our only security measure and without it, we are blind to future crises. This is far from the truth, and I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you understand this.

Fact: Torture is known to produce unreliable information and false confessions. Once the information is gathered, how does one disseminate the difference between the valid and non-valid information? That takes time and resources. Poor and/or unreliable information is what created the initiative with the Iraq war, so we can without a doubt say that unreliable information can be costly, if not down right dangerous. With that being said, using it as the foundation for security measures is a very weak and unreliable method for information gathering.

I am guessing that you and I both believe that information is the foundation of any security measure. Hence the creation of the CIA. Yet, it is not the shear quantity of information, or information for the sake of information that is important. The quality and reliability of the information should be of highest priority. So, this is what I will address in most of this simple essay.

First, history is of paramount importance. Without knowing how we got here, how can we improve our current reality? We have to understand why and how 9/11 happened. The reasons al Qaeda had a desire to attack us are complex, but I will try to simplify them. Osama bin Laden is a very politically active Arab. He is Saudi Arabian by birth, but lived in Afghanistan while we assisted the Afghans in pushing the Soviet regime out of their land. While doing this, we supported and funded the Mujahideen (Jihadists), as well as bin Laden, as a anti-communist resistance during the Cold War. So, bin Laden has not always been our enemy, but at one time an ally.

Unfortunately, once we claimed victory against the Soviets, we left Afghanistan without any rebuilding effort for the war-torn country. This left the country destabilized and no united, political body to govern the country. This is how the Taliban and al Qaeda build there power. This sets the stage for what will turn into Osama bin Laden’s call to duty.

After we left Afghanistan, we did not return to the Middle east until we engaged in the first Gulf War. We, of course, set up a temporary base so that we could effectively push the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. We did a great job preparing and building international support for what we did, and it was a great victory. The problem was once we completed the war. Before the building of the base, we agreed that it was temporary and would be removed after the war was completed. We did not.

Most of the devote Muslims revere Saudi Arabia as the most holy of all Islamic lands. The reason, Mecca. I won’t go into what Mecca is, but you are welcome to look it up if you don’t know. When we decided to convert the temporary military base into a permanent one in spite of all the criticism, we severely offended the Muslims that we are now considering our enemy. The biggest opponent of this action, Osama bin Laden.

Fast forward to 2001. Osama bin Laden used the unstable Afghanistan that we neglected to help rebuild to create a force that would focus on punishing us for occupying their Holy Land with our military base. Why is this such a big deal to them? Well, I won’t go into detail, but we need to be aware of the hundreds of years of Arab history and non-Arab occupations, imperialism and wars within this very country that we ourselves are now occupying. Make sense?

Now, that is information. Information with which we have mostly ignored because we cannot fathom why these “sub-humans” would want to harm us. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as a nation that is infallible, a nation that has done no wrong or a nation that avoids one of Newton’s famous laws — every action has an opposite and equal reaction.

Let’s get to information gathering. Why was Osama’s team successful in taking down our towers? Did we have any idea that it was going to happen? Did we have any leads? Were we aware of the terrorists prior to the attacks? The answer to all the questions is … partly, yes.

We have multiple intelligence agencies within the United States. None of which were communicating with each other. CIA knew of the terrorists that were planning an attack on our country, but were not aware of them being inside the US. FBI was aware that there were potential terrorists in the country, but they did not have the complete files because they were classified, so the FBI could not act on the information. Customs and immigration was completely aware of their existence, but had no idea they were already flagged as terrorists by the CIA.

So, why didn’t we catch them? Well, it’s complicated, but the gist of the story is our intelligence communities, abroad and domestic, were so disjointed, inefficient and secretive with the information, no one could act on it. This is the major reason why 9/11 happened. This is not a conspiracy theory, but the truth. I am not saying that 9/11 was an inside job. I am saying that 9/11 happened because the intelligence that was gathered was mistreated, decentralized and disjointed. Our own incompetence of handling reliable, valid information was our worst enemy.

You say you want suggestions with handling national security? Okay, open up our intelligence communities and agencies to efficiently and effectively communicate, share and centralize all information. We have the world’s most powerful anti-terrorism capabilities, but they won’t work unless we optimize them by learning from our mistakes and fix what is broken (Yes, we need to realize that 9/11 happened because we screwed up). It seems we too easily forget how impressive our true potential is because we are so distracted discussing the need for TORTURE! — a crude, primitive, ineffective and inefficient method of gathering unreliable information.

Once we have fix our current intelligence agencies, we need to severely regulate our immigration. We have over 1 million new legal immigrants coming into our country a year! Add that to our estimated 1 million illegal immigrants, and you have 2,000,000 immigrants a year flooding into this country. Talk about a security issue?!

Now, many will think that last one is so un-American. How can we not allow immigrants, we are a country of immigrants? Well, back in the ’60’s, we just allowed around 400,000 immigrants in a year. I just want to go back to that. There is a whole slew of mathematics that shows the danger of our exploding population, but that is another story. But if you think that is bad, just wait until I mention my next suggestion.

Heavy taxation on oil derived products (yes, that means gasoline too). Our dependence on foreign oil is one of our biggest national security problems. We need to change the American mindset that just because we can, we should. We need to become more conscientious about our affect on more global issues. The tax would do a couple of things. One, it would slow down the use of oil products, and therefor limit our dependence on foreign oil. Two, we could use the profiting from the tax to fund more effective measures for securing our nation. Three, it would be more beneficial for our environment, but again, that is another issue.

Okay, there are many other security measures that can and should be used. Many are discussed everyday, so I am not going to go into it. But, before I conclude my essay, I will say one thing. The most powerful information that we gathered that could have prevented 9/11 was obtained through no torture, no imprisonment, no 183 water-boardings a month. Keep that in mind. When we have the most powerful, the most intelligent, the most technically advanced intelligence agencies on earth, why in the world are we spending so much time on the most primitive, inefficient and unreliable method of gathering information.

We are better than that, we are the United States of America. Let’s act like it and bring this country back up to what it once was — the most respected nation on earth. Hasn’t yo mama taught you anything? The end never justifies the means. Keep a logical head, don’t let emotion rule your thought process and have a Coke and a smile. Never let the enemy define the rules of the game, and never let them define who you are! As soon as you do, you have already lost. Peace.

[POOF]

[Cerebrl out!]