Many will take one look at the reports source, and dismiss the whole thing as mere Left- wing rambling. Others will (in fact, already have) begin spinning yarns about how this whole thing is just a justification to usher in the New World Order, global governance, etc.

Save it.

It wasn't the threat of nuclear weapons in American cities that got my attention. It was some of the other details that may give this report at least "a little" credibility. Al-Usu- quf, an al-Qa'ida mouthpiece in Kuwait, talked about why the American economy must be destroyed, then went on to discuss his opinion on this economy. Read carefully:

"The American economy is an economy of false appearances," says al-Usuquf. "There's no real economic weight. American GNP is something around $10 trillion, but only 1 per- cent comes from agriculture, and only 24 percent from industry. So 75 percent of its GNP comes from services, and most of it is financial speculation. For someone who under- stands economics, and apparently America's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill does not, or cannot, the U.S.A. as a whole behaves like an immense dot.com, and dollars are its stocks. The value of stocks from a given company is directly proportional to its profita- bility. When a company only provides services, but does not produce goods, the value of its stocks depends on its credibility. What I'm saying is if U.S. credibility is affected, its stocks--the US dollar--will fall at at tremendous speed, and the whole American economy will collapse."

Go ahead and call this guy another "Jihad Freak" spouting off at the mouth, but the fact is he's pretty accurate. The manufacturing base has clearly been hauled out of this country, and it seems more than just a few Americans have figured that out (else he may have simply read a copy of "Bankruptcy 1995"). Now please don't send reams of docu- ments about the Federal Reserve, the meaning of money, or how to file something in court to "get out of the system". You can go read the article about this guy's ugly vision on how he's going to "collapse this system."

It ain't pretty.

With that in mind, I pose the challenge again: In this worse case scenario, what does the Real American do? As much as it would be easier to "throw up your hands," or fuss against the machine, such would be a waste of time. You really won' t have time for finger pointing, and survivors will be too preoccupied to give you an ear, anyway. Best bet would be figuring out how to survive the mess, and have a network in place where good information can be shared over long distance, and your neighbors will have a reason not to shoot you.

Survivalism? Yes, we could spend weeks on that subject alone. But in this class assign- ment, the issue is one of communications. How will they be maintained, or, in a worse case, rebuilt?

You see, America (and the world) has become spoiled by what I consider is God's way of giving us one more chance--the Internet. While many of us have chosen to abuse this medium as well (viruses, spam, Nigerian spam, porn, etc.), it would be a pretty good system to help maintain some level of stability in a world of chaos. People will still need things. After a few mushroom clouds over American cities, one can safely assume the U.S. Mail system may be a bit slow, and there may be a healthy share of internet router problems, since those routers would be vaporized.

Survivors meanwhile should have back up systems in place in case--yes--the Internet goes down.

Of course, you don't need Jihad Doomsday for that to happen. A little over a week ago, the Internet took a big hit from something attacking Windows environments. This means that what ever backup plan you and your associates have in place, I'd find something other than Windows.

Remember those old BBS systems? They can still be put to work, providing that long distance is still working (yeah, right). Frankly, I think the Internet should have gone completely wireless years ago. A worse case scenario could make wireless Internet mandatory.

Let's go over the homework assignment again:

Scenario: The Internet goes down, the phones don't work, there's nothing on TV, and little on radio. Heck, you may not even have electricity. After dealing with water, food, satiation and safe living quarters, how do you communicate with the rest of the country?

Yes, you'll need to. Many of the things you'll need to survive will be sitting in other places, and you'll need to talk to someone to have it delivered safely your way. Even if you're gonna attempt to leave the country, you'll need to know what's ahead of you.

Sure, we may have talked about it at one time or another, but the great conspiracy of the Trilateral Commission, United Nations soldiers, and constitutional violations always seems to get the attention.

It's crunch time, people. We've got to get serious. I'm hoping it doesn't take another September 11 to make everyone realize we're at war. Oh, that was a government conspiracy, too, and this is all just "fake"?

I have heard from too many different sources and from too many people about the very real possibility of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil or "first strikes" against the U.S.A. to just blow it off. It's something we need to be prepared for anyway. And don't look toward Washington, D.C. That place is high on the Jihad target list anyway. You'll have to depend on God, yourself, and each other. When the President all but brings it up in a speech to Congress, maybe its time to start taking it seriously.

Shortly after September 11, the Sierra Times created a message board called "The War Room" to discuss such things. Perhaps it's time for folks to join in and become part of the solution--which is more productive than just complaining about the problems.

We got a nation--or at least a remnant of it--to save. Let's get to work.

J.J. Johnson is Publisher of the SIERRA TIMES and Chief Executive Officer of J.J. Johnson Enterprises, of which the SIERRA TIMES is a subsidiary.

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