Reply #7: Don't think these "commandos" can do much vis a vis WMDs [View All]

...the two missions are incompatible. My impression is that supersecret defense contractors and public health agencies are the primary defense with respect to WMD attacks of the chemical or biological kind. As to nuclear attack, the defense plan is run, or bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

This whole setup bespeaks of a government run by paranoids rather than a particularly effective group. I notice that airforce has the operational control of the United States with Northern Command. This is their reward for supporting the 911 operation.

<Since Sept. 11, however, military and law enforcement agencies have worked much more closely not only to help detect and defeat any possible attack, including from unconventional weapons, but also to assure the continuity of the federal government in case of cataclysmic disaster.

The commandos here this week were the same type of Special Operations forces who are hunting top insurgents in Iraq and Osama bin Laden in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But under the top-secret military plan, they are also conducting counterterrorism missions in support of civilian agencies in the United States.

"They bring unique military and technical capabilities that often are centered around potential W.M.D. events," said a senior military official who has been briefed on the units' operations. <snip>

Now I really feel safe.