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It is that slaughter that begets necessity. The anthrax attacks give but a hint of the kind of mass murder possible today. A smallpox epidemic could kill tens of millions and effectively destroy American society. As could loose nukes. According to Boris Yeltsin's former national security adviser, Russia cannot account for all its tactical nuclear weapons. Iraq and Iran are working on nuclear weapons of their own. On Sept. 11, it took just 19 conspirators to shock America. It would take just 19 more, each with a suitcase nuke, to destroy America.
Yes, these are improbable events. But how probable were four simultaneously hijacked planes turned into kamikaze guided missiles?
"Weapons of mass destruction" is a bland euphemism. These are weapons of genocide. And Osama bin Laden has openly declared his readiness to use them on the infidel. The enemy has declared total war. Yet we eschew all but limited war. The asymmetry is potentially suicidal.
Before the Gulf War, Iraq was given to understand that any use of biological or chemical weapons against American forces would be met with weapons that would wipe Iraq off the face of the earth. We will never know if President Bush would have carried out the threat. But the threat was credible enough to stay Saddam's hand.
Are we credible still? Are we even prepared to make the same threat to whoever would commit an American genocide? If we are not prepared to wage total war in response to total war, we risk disaster on a scale we have never seen and can barely imagine.