U.S. Can-Do or American Bumph

"[U.S. Special Operations Command] has sufficient 'render-safe' capacity to respond to the most likely [scenarios relating to weapons of mass destruction]."
"[Commandos with the SOC have] found the proper threshold of maintaining the world's foremost counterterrorism force while ensuring our counterproliferation forces, including the no-fail mission of render-safe, are manned, trained and equipped and prepared to address WMD threats as they arise."
Army General Raymond Thomas, head, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOC)

This is the signal for the world to take a deep breath and relax. All is well. While President Barack Obama, having skilfully used his diplomatic expertise to convince the Islamic Republic of Iran that it is not nice to worry the international community over its thirst for nuclear weaponry in a part of the world that is already tinder-dry with explosive dysfunction, and shrugging off any potential threat from North Korea as the fat-kid-playtoys-pretense, his military has the situation well in hand.

Both the deployment of diplomacy and of mopping-up have been addressed. The middle portion stuck in between both, the potential striking anywhere in the world of some unexpected dirty nuclear bomblet as a trial balloon is nowhere to be seen in discussion other than within triple-armed-plated inner sanctorums only selective political and intelligence elites have entry to. The prospect of rogue nations like Iran and North Korea, not to mention Pakistan deploying their own, shunted aside.

The Pentagon has given permission for a public statement on its plans to deploy commandos should terrorists somehow obtain a nuclear weapon or develop a "dirty bomb" from available radioactive material improperly secured, has a purpose. One, to elevate the terrorist threat from mere suicide bombings killing tens, hundreds, thousands, to the more serious business of levelling cities and their inhabitants, guilty by their very presence, since they are the "enemy" requiring to be vanquished.

That will either trigger Armageddon, or surrender to the superior theological powers of representatives of a fanatical religion so brutally sinister that the loss of countless lives is completely immaterial to the non-existent rights of humanity. Humanity is subject to the whim and demands of a being so superior that sacred texts convince believers that existence on Earth is merely a rehearsal and their performance will result inevitably in their elevation to the pleasures of the real life awaiting them on a higher plane in Paradise.

While the U.S. commandos have neutralizing bombs techniques and tools at their disposal in what they imagine to be the real world, they may not quite realize that neutralizing the faith fervour of delusional fanatics remains the real threat to survival. Still, relief can be found in the uncertainty whether, when or if the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant will ever succeed in possessing nuclear weapons. In which case the world can continue its focus on suicide bombings, beheadings, crucifixtions, mass slaughter and slavery.

Second, of course, is that the problem has been solved. The Pentagon has allocated $1-billion to its program of equipping its special commando forces with "a full spectrum" of counterterrorism technologies developed by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. This is a program whose intent is to provide special forces units with "tools to locate, identify, characterize, assess and attack WMD production and storage facilities, with minimal-to-no collateral damage or loss of life". 

Now that truly is a best-face-forward scenario.

As for the funding allocated to that preservation of life, limb and soul, and The American Way of Life, one can only wonder how it stacks up against what the American public spends on chewing gum annually?