Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Sage
Views

By Smokey Briggs

We are at war

Cowards. Crime. Tragedy. Claim responsibility.

Each word and phrase has been repeated a thousand times on television news in reference to yesterday's attack on New York City and the Pentagon.

Each phrase and word illustrates our perception of terrorism _ a perception that tends to equate terrorism with domestic crime and political activism.

That is the wrong perception and exactly why terrorist have become so bold in their attacks.

Terrorism is warfare. There are three types of warfare _ conventional, guerilla, and terrorism. The more mismatched the countries involved, the more likely the war will degenerate into guerilla or terrorist warfare.

The sooner Americans accept that all acts of terrorism are acts of war, the sooner we can deal with this.

For the last 30 years we have generally treated terrorism as a domestic crime of sorts, complete with calls for due process and other protections reserved for criminal justice.

Yesterday was not about crime. It was about war. The two are not the same.

In yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, some ninny wrote that we must "realize that the concept of national security as we have known it throughout our history has changed forever."

Hogwash. Nothing has changed except, hopefully, our concept of what terrorism is and how it should be dealt with.

There is no set of defenses that can be erected by any nation, free or totalitarian, that can prevent acts of terror. Terror organizations can call on resources that will defeat any practical security measure for a static civilian target. Closed borders, armed guards on airplanes, banning of knives and guns, …. No such measure can stop the terrorist no matter how much we wish it could.

The only defense in this game is offense. We must be willing to be more terrible than the terrorist if we are to prevail. Terrorist acts should be treated as acts of war and a military response is the only response. That response should be swift and deadly and uncluttered with the trappings of criminal justice.

There should be no euphemistic talk of "bringing to justice."

In war you do not bring your enemy to justice. You kill him and destroy everyone and everything that allows him to exist and to threaten your homes and your families. You exterminate.

That is what needs to be done. Let us not fail.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise. He can be e-mailed at: smokey@pecos.net

Our View

Yesterday's gouge at the gas pumps was despicable

Yesterday, in the wake of the World Trade Center bombing, many local gas stations raised prices by forty cents on all grades of gasoline. Apparently this was the trend nationwide.

It was a despicable trend.

Whether it meets the legal criteria for price gouging as prohibited by the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act is yet to be seen.

Certainly it meets the common sense criteria for gouging. What it amounts to is profit taking on the blood of our countrymen.

In the midst what may well be the bloodiest day in American history _ a day calculated to cause panic in our nation _ Americans had one more reason to panic as fears about fuel shortages raged.

The initial price hikes were the beginning of that panic. The first lines started after the price began to jump and people tried to fill up their cars before it went higher. Lines formed.

Long lines fueled more rumors and more panic. At ten o'clock last night people were still waiting in line to buy gas at price gouging prices here in Pecos.

This panic started with the first price hike. That hike should not have taken place. Not yesterday.

Your View

Reunion helped friends catch up with old times

Dear Editor:
It would be easy to go on for many pages about  the good times so many good friends had in Dallas  last weekend. The reunion was a blast. Of course we all  had lots of memories to re-live and years of catching up to  do but it was more than just reminiscing - we all  discovered new things about our friends. It was almost like  meeting new friends with whom we already have much in  common and we started new adventures hearing about the  things they do and the places they live and the way life  has unfolded for them since we first met. 

It will be great to see them again in two years. It was so much fun that there will surely be many more attending the next one as word gets out.

Thanks for the great time Mike and Glynda and all of you who came.

BOB HUCKABEE '62
aeromondo@ev1.ne

Thanks to those who helped gather reunion crowd

Dear Editor:
I would like to add my thanks and congratulations  to Glynda and Mike for a job well done.

Everyone I talked to seemed to have enjoyed the weekend very much and are looking forward to the next one in two years. The number of people there, around 250, would have been almost impossible to assemble without the use of the internet in general, and the Pecos Gab site in particular. So we also have to thank Joy (Brown) and Peggy, as well as Jim Ivy for his sponsorship of the site. Thanks to all who made this possible.

JAMES P. (JIMMY) SMITH
Houston

Reunion in Dallas was a great success

Dear Editor:
I arrived in Dallas on Thursday and saw a very familiar face in  the lobby of the hotel and as we stood there talking, others began to  walk by with that look on their faces, I might know that  person. Just the mention of Pecos and it wasn`t  long before there were over twenty of us standing there with an energy that  I haven`t seen since growing up in Pecos. The lobby was the  unofficial meeting place every morning and moved on into the restaurant or  bar as they opened. There was a life about the hotel that was growing and it  kept growing until Sunday evening when it slowly started to fade with  the absence of the people that kept it alive. By Monday morning, it  had faded to a mere breath of the life that it was two days before and  by evening it had an air of loneliness that only a hotel lobby can have.  The familiar faces were gone but there was still family in the area  to visit and enjoy company with. Oh, but I missed those familiar faces that I hadn`t  seen for 40 years and wondered so many, many times about where they  were and how they were doing. It was great seeing them together, acting  as though it was Pecos all over again, as though they had just  finished a hard won football game or other sporting event and it was time  to gather and  celebrate.

By Tuesday morning when I left, the hotel had no life but the desk clerk said that it was exciting, seeing all of the activity there through the weekend and that we must have all lived in a great place to be able to enjoy each other so much. She was right! Thank you Glynda and Michael for putting this all together so that we might put our lives on hold and enter into the time of friendship and memories that could only have been possible in a great place like Pecos. It was a special place as well as a special time to have given the world so many good, productive people from such a small community. I think that we were very fortunate to have grown up during those times and in Pecos.

Those that were unable to attend, please, try to make it to the next one since you were missed, even though you might not think so. Everyone from each of the different classes were a part of everyone else`s lives and your presence will make the gathering of friends more complete. We all hope to see you next time.

BILL O'NEIL `59
Arlington, Washington

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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail newsdesk@nwol.net

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