Terrorism, vulnerability ahead for US

Wednesday, 15 September 1999 21:25 (GMT)

(UPI Spotlight)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) - A bipartisan commission directed by the president to project what threats the United States will face 25 years from now is warning that terrorism is likely to strike at the heart of America, and while the country will remain unchallenged as a world power, its reliance on high technology will make the U.S. economy and way of life increasingly vulnerable.

"The reason we are here today is to begin to get the American people involved in a sweeping national discussion about what dangers we'll face in the next century," the commission co-chair, former Sen. Gary Hart, said (Wednesday).

Copyright 1999 by United Press International

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and the next century is right on our horizon
-- I wasn't here (I never@posted.this), September 15, 1999

Answers

Whoa.

This story's gonna be big.

First UPI, and now Reuters and Bloomberg. 'Guess everyone went to the press conference. [grin] But where's AP?

(Snip)

Panel forecasts U.S. challenges in 21st century

By Carol Giacomo

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Over the next 25 years, the United States is expected to retain its preeminence as a world power but Americans will become less secure and face the likelihood that many will die on U.S. soil, the victims of terrorism, according to a new study released on Wednesday.

The study, by a Pentagon-funded panel of experts, also concluded that over the next two decades, U.S. military superiority "will not entirely protect us" from threats, American dependence on foreign energy sources will grow, and some important states -- left unnamed -- could "fragment or fail."

"Although a global competitor to the United States is unlikely to arise over the next 25 years, emerging powers -- either singly or in coalition -- will increasingly constrain U.S. options regionally and limit its strategic influence," it said.

As a result, the United States will have "limited ability to impose our will and we will be increasingly vulnerable to an increasing range of threats against American forces and citizens overseas as well as at home," it determined.

"States, terrorists and other disaffected groups will acquire weapons of mass destruction ... and some of them will use them ... The most serious threat to our security may consist of unannounced attacks on American cities by sub-national groups using genetically engineered pathogens," it said.

AMERICANS WILL BE LESS SECURE

Because future threats differ from the past, the panel determined, "for many years to come Americans will become increasingly less secure and much less secure than they now believe themselves to be."

In this initial report, the panel chaired by former senators Warren Rudman, a Republican, and Gary Hart, a Democrat, described the world confronting the United States in the new millennium.

In future reports, the experts will use this vision to develop a new U.S. national security strategy for the 21st century to replace one enacted in 1947, before the Cold War and the collapse of Communism.

The experts cautioned that while "the American moment in world history will not last forever," for the foreseeable future American leadership in the world is of paramount importance.

In the financial area, the panel concluded that the economic future will be more difficult to predict and manage.

While global economic growth will continue overall, "serious and unexpected economic downturns, major disparities of wealth, volatile capital flows, increasing vulnerabilities in global electronic infrastructures, labor and social disruptions, and pressures for increased protectionism will also occur," it said.

OTHER PANEL FINDINGS

Among the panel's other findings:

An economically strong United States is likely to remain a primary political, military and cultural force through 2025. It will remain "the" principal military power.

Much of the world "will resent and oppose" the United States and reliable alliances will be more difficult to establish and sustain.

World energy supplies will remain largely based on fossil fuels and "American dependence on foreign sources of energy will also grow over the next two decades."

Weapons of mass destruction will proliferate, making the maintenance of a robust U.S. nuclear deterrent essential.

Some "important states" will not be able to manage the challenges now emerging and "could fragment or fail." New states, international protectorates and zones of autonomy, as now seen in Kosovo, will increase, many born of violence.

Weapons will likely be put in space. Space will become permanently manned.

Pressures will increase substantially for the United States to reduce its military presence in Europe and Asia.

New technologies will divide the world as well as draw it together. An anti-technology backlash is possible.

All national borders "will be porous; some will bend and some will break." Traditional bonds between states and their citizens, including in the United States, "can no longer be taken for granted."

(SNIP)

Foreign Economic Turmoil a Threat to US Security, Study Says

Washington, Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Foreign economic crises such as those in Asia and Russia, major disparities in wealth around the world and volatile capital flows could pose as much of a threat to U.S. national security in the next 25 years as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, according to a new government study.

The United States must broaden its definition of national security to include economic as well as military threats, says a commission set up by the Defense Department and endorsed by the White House.

The commission today released the first part of a three-part study which the Defense Department is billing as the most comprehensive look at how the U.S. crafts national security since the 1947 National Security Act. The study reviews trends in technology, economics and demographics and is intended to shape defense policy and defense spending.

The commission's mandate is to offer a framework for more detailed Pentagon reviews, such as a follow-up to the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review that revised the number of aircraft and vessels the U.S. will buy.

``This commission will not get into the nitty-gritty of service force structure -- what tank to buy, how many heavy divisions to have or whether the F-22 is appropriate,'' said Executive Director Charles Boyd.

``We can make recommendations to the next president for his use in a budgetary way -- where to shift resources but we are not going to recommend a budget,'' he said.

Former Senators Hart, Rudman

The U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century is headed by two former U.S. senators: Democrat Gary Hart of Colorado and Republican Warren Rudman of Vermont. Former Lockheed Martin Corp. Chairman Norm Augustine, House Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and former U.S. U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young are among the commission's 14 members.

Today's report offered broad-brush observations about the state of the world by 2024 and potential threats. The commission in two subsequent volumes in April 2000 and February 2001 will make formal recommendations, Hart said.

``Thanks to the continuing integration of global financial networks, economic downturns that were once normally episodic and local may become more systemic and fully global in their harmful effects,'' the report said, without citing examples.

``The idea that national economies are self-contained units has disappeared,'' said Hart at a press conference. ``This financial world is so integrated already and will increasingly be so, that any sense we can stand aside from (this world) is far behind.''

The report picks up on this theme: ``Serious and unexpected economic downturns, major disruptions of wealth, volatile capitol flows, increasing vulnerabilities in global electronic infrastructures, labor and social disruptions and pressures for protectionism will occur,'' said the report in one of 14 conclusions unveiled today.

``Many countries will be simultaneously more wealthy and more insecure,'' it said.

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), September 15, 1999.

As always.

We are our own worst enemy.

Proper planning and preparation prevents pee poor performance.

It's a mindset.

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), September 15, 1999.

snip... Much of the world "will resent and oppose" the United States ....snip. They already do folks, they already do.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), September 15, 1999.

Incompetence may get to us before the terrorists do (Isn't that what Y2K really is about?).

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 15, 1999.

This is all part of the New World Order srategy to get their Orwellian eyes and ears into every aspect of our lives.

Big Brother in our machines

We are more threatened by our own government than the ones they are using to keep us in a state of fear. In most cases these terrorists are employed by the NWO global elite, the very same ones who control the politicians and media who are telling us to be afraid.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 15, 1999.

THE FINAL-BATTLE HAS BEGUN.--IT,S GONNA GET UGLY,BEFORE JESUS=RETURN,S THE BATTLE IS FOR YOUR=SOUL.

-- SIGN-WATCHER (dogs@zianet.com), September 16, 1999.

Hey, Sign-Watcher-- Do ya' recall that yer "main man", the one you say is gonna return, is cited as sayin' that tha' "kingdom of heaven" is not some external place to which ya' can say, "Lo here" or "Lo there"; that "kingdom" is "WITHIN". So, for tha' benefit of any fundamental literalists out there in cyber la-la land, "the final battle" hasn't "begun": it has been an on-going thing since homo sapiens emerged from wherever/whatever (or from fashioning with clay), and is occuring at this very moment, and will continue until "human" life ceases to exist on tha' planet. And THAT'S the "good" news. The bad news is that "the final battle" is simultaneously occuring in cyberspace and probably in any other non-physical plane of existence where humans (or what "remains" of humans after the "mortal coil" is shuffed off) find themselves. . . So, as yer doin' yer "preps", don't ferget to lay away some "spiritual treasures"-- because even if ya' do survive "Y2K"-- yer not gettin' outa' this life with yer hide intact. And if ya' DO find yerself in some non-physical plane of existence, you'll have yer non- physical "preps", or treasures. . . . . ."Let those who have ears hear". . .

-- Dewer Dye (qwerty@!!!!.net), September 17, 1999.

Dewars,

I raise me glass t'ye!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), September 17, 1999.