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Nowhere to Hide
By Doug Patton
October 1, 2001

Having just spent five days in the north woods of Minnesota, the lyrics of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" took on a brand new meaning for me. I thought of the refrain, "from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee..." As I began reviewing the lyrics in my mind -- "from Detroit down to Houston, and from New York to L.A." -- I realized that in this entire vast nation there is nowhere to hide from the reality of the war we all now face.

For those of us who have lived through the era of modern terrorism, there is a sense that terrorist attacks are isolated events, followed by a return to normality. For Americans, who have always viewed terrorism from afar, there has always been something of a detachment from it all.

On September 11, all that changed. The enormity of the assault, and the horror we all felt watching it occur on our own soil, combined to create a sense of vulnerability we may never escape.

There is now a realization that any one of us, no matter who we are or where we live, could be next. The scenario most widely spoken of at the moment is a biological attack.

Try to imagine a few strategically placed vials of smallpox or anthrax in downtown Los Angeles. Or a Sarin gas attack like that unleashed in a Japanese subway in 1994. Picture already beleaguered New Yorkers on their way to work in the subways of Manhattan, suddenly struck down by deadly chemicals. Those beautiful lakes I just visited in Minnesota could be poisoned with one crop duster.

The nightmare closest to home for me is nuclear. I live in Bellevue, Nebraska, just south of Omaha. My home is approximately three miles from Offutt Air Force Base, which is the headquarters of the Strategic Command (formerly SAC). We always knew there was a big bull's-eye painted on our part of the map hanging in the Kremlin during the days of the Cold War. In fact, I used to joke with my neighbors that in the event of an attack, we could sit in my front yard and watch the missiles come in. I never dreamed that different kind of nuclear threat might come to our doorstep.

A few miles to our north and a few miles south are two of the oldest active nuclear power plants in the country. My nightmare scenario goes like this: terrorists plant a small nuclear device at each of those two reactors, thereby causing a meltdown, or worse, a real nuclear chain reaction.

What would be the response of our government if a major population center were poisoned or otherwise destroyed, killing hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans?

There are a couple of schools of thought as to why the worldwide Islamic network of terror has not yet used chemical, biological or nuclear weapons against the West.

The first theory says that they simply don't have the weapons. I don't believe it, and I don't think most Americans believe it, and if Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Ladin and others have chemical and biological weapons at their disposal, can nuclear be far behind?

So, if they have the weapons, why haven't they used them? They may well believe that using such weapons of mass destruction would bring a retaliation that would leave Baghdad and a few other choice targets a smoldering ruin beneath a mushroom cloud.

But would we do it? I hope so, because that deterrent means nothing if we are not prepared to back it up with action. The only thing that kept the Soviets from incinerating the United States all those years was the assurance of mutual destruction. If we allow Middle East terrorists to believe that there is nothing they can do to us that will ensure a nuclear retaliation, then our arsenal is a colossal waste of money and our fate is sealed.

I understand the nature of the war we are fighting. The Justice Department is frantically trying to round up the terrorists already among us before we unleash whatever retaliation is surely coming.

In the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack upon this nation, I hope and pray our government is prepared to fulfill its first duty to defend us with every weapon in our arsenal.

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates and elected officials. His work can be viewed weekly on GOPUSA.

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