Anthrax scare: Should Americans be worried?

With 4 confirmed cases of anthrax and perhaps something in Reno, the question we pose is: Is this a biological attack or a prelude to one?

Our opinion is yes. And while we don't believe it is directly related to the events of Sept. 11, we do believe that this is definitely a terrorist attack, although on a very small scale. And it should be clearly noted that this is solely our opinion, not fact.

Not only do we feel it is a small-scale attack, we further think that it is a warning message to Americans:

this is just a taste of what's to come--and you can't do anything about it!

Now you might be wondering how we could reach such a conclusion. Well, we know that bin Laden is extremely wealthy, resourceful, and has a deep-rooted hatred of the US. And he is also a master at scare tactics. We think this is his way of truly scaring the American public. And what scares us even more is what a man as evil as bin Laden would do with his back against the wall--unleash a "doomsday" device? Now we don't really know if he as biological weapons, but our belief is that with his money and operatives throughout the world, it is a strong possibility.

While anthrax is not the perfect agent for a biological attack, it is definitely enough to scare us into thinking, "what if something else was unleashed on us? and something far deadlier?" We firmly support the US war on terrorism, but urge caution that we are not dealing with a country, nor a man like Saddam, who is interested in self-preservation. We are dealing with a man who doesn't fear death and has little need for material wealth. Moreover, a man with an education, money, and long-stretched arms. Can we win this? NO! but we can make dents in his operations.

And lastly, to us, it makes perfect sense targeting the US media for such an attack. After all, what better way to simultaneously get immediate and guaranteed media exposure, plus scare the general public than by doing so.

So what's our solution? The threat of massive biological warfare, quite frankly scares the heck out of us and is not worth the risk. We propose fighting the war on terrorism on our home turf by beefing up national security, and urging coalition members to do the same. Basically, limit bin Laden's activities and make it harder for him to operate.

Since we can't wipe-out terrorism entirely, we can put the terrorists on notice that we will be on our guard from now on and make it harder for them to attack. Forcing bin Laden's hand, in our opinion, is a big mistake because of the fear factor: Does he have biological agents and would he use them? While living with terrorism is by far not the ideal, it is far better than the consequences of a truly biological weapons attacks.

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