The Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle

Commentary on the Flux of Events

I don't know about you, but I'm strangely un-reassured by the capture of 31-year-old Abdullah al-Muhajir, a.k.a. Jose Padilla, suspected of plotting to set off a so-called radioactive dirty bomb in Washington. I'm not reassured because to me it only signifies that a very nasty idea is now in play and that there could well be many more skulking Padilla-al-Muhajirs out there rigging up containers of obsolete medical isotopes, or somesuch, to bricks of C-4 plastic explosive. What do you do? Arrest every brown-skinned man on K Street carrying an attache case from now until. . .

This represents further the extreme vulnerability of our open social networks to sabotage, as much as our physical infrastructure. And if the West -- America in particular -- loses confidence in the idea of open social structures, then the Clusterfuck begins in earnest. It would mean farewell to the networks of economic relations that we've come to call the global economy. It would most certainly propel us into Great Depression II.

On a slightly different subject, my wife Jennifer and I had a debate over supper last night. I maintained that there is next to nothing that President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan can do to halt incursions by Islamic terrorists into India. Jennifer said that Musharraf's desire to for stature among world leaders would inspire him to at least try to control these characters.

She might be right about "trying," but trying ain't doing. Many of the terrorists operating out of Pakistan are outlaw Taliban and their follows who have fled in from Afghanistan. If they're under anybody's control, it would be Mr. Osama bin Laden or his successor, and that faction has a positive interest in creating as much trouble as possible.

My conclusion: I expect another terrorist attack on India within a month, to which India will respond immediately with massive conventional air strikes followed by ground troops.