New Paradigm to Prevent FutureTerrorism

   In his annual Chairman's Letter to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders Warren Buffet noted that “while no one knows the probability of a nuclear denotation in a major metropolis this year (or even multiple detonations, given that a terrorist organization able to construct one bomb might not stop there)...” the probabilities, although “likely very low at present... are increasing, in an irregular and immeasurable manner, as knowledge and materials become available to those who wish us ill.” He goes on to say that “fear may recede with time, but the danger won't – the war against terrorism can never be won. The best the nation can achieve is a long-succession of stalemates. There can be no checkmate against hydra-headed foes.”
     At the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting he followed up by saying “a major nuclear event in this country” was a “virtual certainty,” and New York and Washington would be the top two targets because terrorists want to traumatize the country and kill as many people as possible. And since Berkshire-Hathaway’s main business is insurance, his remarks were made in the context of potential losses from such events, which “under a ‘close-to-worse-case’ scenario... could conceivably involve $1 trillion of damage, which
would destroy the insurance industry. As a result, private insurance industry must “dramatically limit its assumption of terrorism risks [since] only the U.S. Government has the resources to absorb such a blow.”
    And today (May 19, 2002) Vice President Cheney said another attack against the U.S. was “almost certain” and other officials said the indications were the next al Qaeda attack would be “as big or bigger” than the ones on September 11th.
    All these warnings reflect the realities that our borders are so wide and so porous, our commerce so great and so international, our society so diverse and so open, and the materials and knowledge for weapons of mass destruction so available that sometime in the future someone will use them against us. And while our first line of defense will logically be better intelligence, more effective border controls, and eventually national ID cards and other measures that will necessarily infringe our privacy and lifestyle, these measures can never be enough to prevent every attempt by all of those who want to harm us.
    So we need a new paradigm that fully uses our most powerful anti-terrorist weapon which is not our military but our economy, i.e. the U.S. economy already is the economic engine for much of the world, and that sphere of influence must be dramatically expanded by massive amounts of assistance and aid to other countries so that an attack on the U.S. will in essence be an attack on the terrorists’ own people and homeland as well.
    Since successful terrorists have been educated and with significant financial resources, and their acts have been rational to their goals, this new paradigm should:

(P.S. On a recent trip to Mexico, when Hobie asked the taxi driver if September 11th had affected his business, the stream of obscenities against Osama were colorful and heartfelt as the taxi driver said he held Osama bin Laden responsible for the lack of tourists, which forced his wife to take a second job, and his son and pregnant wife to move in with them... an effect Osama presumably did not contemplate or intend.... And the recently enacted massive farm subsidy bill is idiotic for many reasons, but now also because it pays farmers not to produce food which could be extremely helpful in combating terrorism.)