Letters to the Editor
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The REAL Threats To National Security
Senator McCain's claim that the fight against Islamic terrorism is the "pre-eminent challenge of our time" is patently absurd. To be fixated on Islamic terrorism is like worrying about a biting mosquito while facing a charging tiger. For starters, one can't be regarded as serious about national security without a workable plan for checking the flood of illegal immigrants still coming across our southern border.
The REAL threats to our national security are not exclusively external, but are built into the warp-and-weave of American life. First, we have an infrastructure and economy that is totally dependent on a limited and increasingly expensive to obtain resource: petroleum. We need strong leadership to make the transition to a post-carbon future. Fresh water depletion is becoming a very serious problem, as much of our western states agriculture is based on irrigation using non-renewing aquifers. Global warming is intimately connected to the use of petroleum and coal and is a demonstrable threat to national security. Somewhat unrecognized in the press to date is the wasting of fertile soil due to erosion and the misappropriation of agricultural land to suburban sprawl. I am far more afraid of huge economic disruptions resulting in social chaos in the years ahead than the pimple-on-my-butt problem of Islamic terrorism.