Random Thoughts & Questions: (Submit comments to: archinsc@home.com ) (October 30, 2001)

President Bush said Monday (October 29) the U.S. would get tougher on immigrants with student visas to assure they are in school and not off somewhere plotting something illegal. The already overworked FBI, Immigration and other federal officials obviously cannot take on this workload. About 600,000 foreigners are admitted each year on student visas and more than 26,000 U.S. colleges and universities are authorized to enroll them, according to the Associated Press. This security checking ought to be farmed out to local authorities in the area where the student is scheduled to enroll? The colleges should also be required to certify attendance and report absences via a nationwide computerized hookup, which will alert the Feds and local authorities. Searches for missing immigrant students must be undertaken promptly upon alert.

Since the overwhelming majority of Americans cannot read, write or interpret Arabic, why hasn’t the computing community (are you listening Bill Gates) developed the means to capture Arabic speeches and writings and run them through a converter/translator into English so we can all have a better idea of what Arabs think, write and say?

On a map of Kabul recently I saw the location of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Preservation of Virtue and the Elimination of Vice, which still holds eight Christian good doers in jail for allegedly throwing in a few words about Jesus along with advice on how to dig a well, plant a garden and turn stones into turnips. Not since Barry Goldwater’s 1964 ad hominem (“Extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of liberty is no virtue.”) at the Cow Palace in San Francisco has anyone put virtue and vice in the same sentence.

It is not un-patriotic to disagree with something President Bush and the Congress are doing. It is not un-American to criticize politicians in this day and time. Politicians who expect everything they do to be accepted at face value are wacky or deluding themselves. America is all about independence of thought. It is also a Republic, where we elect officials to represent us and we abide, albeit sometimes reluctantly, with their decisions. This doesn’t mean we can’t have our own opinion or that we must shut up and wallow miserably in absolute silence.

Visit my web site at Francis X. Archibald

War During Ramadan
Six days ago I urged the U.S. continue to fight, including bombing, in Afghanistan during Ramadan. (See 10/23/01, 10:19:24 AM below). During the past weekend other voices are saying the same thing. Most recently, The Post & Courier, Charleston, S.C., editorialized in favor of continuing the fighting during Ramadan. It may not go over too well with some Southerners, but in war we ought to remember General Grant's promise: "I purpose to fight on this line if it takes all summer."

TERRORISM'S INTENT - Writing in Newsweek, October 29, 2001, pg. 76, George F. Will said, "Hijacked aircraft and powdered anthrax -such terrorist tools are crude and scarce compared with computers, which are everywhere and inexpensive. wielded with sufficient cunning, they can spread the demoralizing helplessness that is terrorism's most important byproduct."
In the October 18, 2001issue of The Wall Street Journal (page A-8) it was reported that the former deputy head of the former Soviet agency that manufactured anthrax and other agents for biological weapons, told the U.S. House National Security Subcommittee that the primary use of anthrax was not to cause death or illness. Reportedly Dr. Ken Alibek said Soviet goals were, "Inciting panic and fear, paralyzing the nation, overwhelming medical services, causing severe economic damage," and death or illness came in fifth. Without evidence, no one can be sure what goals terrorists (foreign or domestic) might have, but former Soviet strategy is worth considering.

Hanahan, South Carolina: Today I updated my web site Francis X. Archibald_Commentary from South Carolina to make a specific link to this blogger under the rubic FRESH COMMENTARY. It was on my LINKS page previously.

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday it would be in the interest of the United States and its partners to see the military action in Afghanistan "resolved" before winter, but hinted that operations might continue during the month of Ramazan. (Pakistan News Service, www.paknews.com, Monday, Oct. 22, 2001.)

Comment: Secretary Powell is speaking realistically when he says it would be better if the fighting in Afghanistan were over before winter, but no one should interpret that to mean America and its true-blue allies won't fight through the winter. My vote would be for "no relief" during Ramadan. Remember the Tet holidays.

In today's (October 18, 2001) The Wall Street Journal (page A-8) it was reported that the former deputy head of the former Soviet agency that manufactured anthrax and other agents for biological weapons, told the U.S. House National Security Subcommittee that the primary use of anthrax was not to cause death or illness. Reportedly Dr. Ken Alibek said Soviet goals were, "Inciting panic and fear, paralyzing the nation, overwhelming medical services, causing severe economic damage," and death or illness came in fifth. Without evidence, no one can be sure what goals terrorists (foreign or domestic) might have, but former Soviet strategy is worth considering.

Maybe you have heard the quip around South Carolina: "The other day I saw a guy with a sign that said, 'Where will you spend eternity?' It freaked me out because, at that time, I was on my way to the Department of Motor Vehicles."
Well, you won't hear Francis X. Archibald repeating it. He wrote to me four years ago to say that, despite a rash of complaints about the DMV, he had received fine service at the Ladson office.
Recently, he and his wife returned and left 33 minutes later with renewed licenses.
"The place was orderly, the servers friendly and the whole process not a bit of a hassle."

Elsa McDowell, Driver has praise for DMV, The Post & Courier, Charleston, S.C., October 13, 2001

I thought these insights into a couple of Americans were worth sharing: These come from the Associated Press, October 9, 2001.

But for others, carrying on was a patriotic and perhaps courageous gesture of defiance against accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Claudette and Floyd Nelson, retirees from Mora, Minn., endured a 30-minute wait in bitter cold and passed through a metal detector to see the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

"It's telling that little slug over there that we're not afraid of him," said Claudette Nelson, 67. "He's not going to succeed. No way."


Nancy Fritz, a nursing student from Irvine, Calif., studied for her midterms in the courtyard of a Phoenix mall while her husband attended a convention.

"For me, especially living near Hollywood, where most of America's culture is disseminated to the world, the possibility of retaliatory strikes now seems very real. I'll probably start to stockpile bottled water and nonperishable food supplies," she said.

Still, "I can't see myself taking a vacation in Afghanistan any time soon, but other than that, I won't change much in my life."